We present first results from an imaging survey with the Spitzer Space Telescope of 62 brightest cluster galaxies with optical line emission located in the cores of X-ray luminous clusters selected from the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. We find that 1/3 of these sources have signs of excess infrared emission; 22 objects of 62 are detected at 70 μm and 19 have 8 to 5.8 μm flux ratios above 0.98. The strength of the excess emission correlates with the luminosity of the optical emission lines. Excluding the four systems dominated by an AGN, the excess mid-infrared emission in the remaining brightest cluster galaxies is likely powered by star formation. We find a correlation between mass deposition rate from a cooling flow model for the X-ray emission and the star formation rate estimated from the infrared luminosity. The star formation rates are 1/10 to 1/100 of the mass deposition rates expected in the absence of heating suggesting that the re-heating of the ICM is generally very effective in reducing the amount of mass cooling from the hot phase.

We simulate the formation and evolution of galaxies with a hydrodynamical model including supernova and hypernova feedback. The large contribution of hypernovae is required from the observed abundance ratios in the Milky Way Galaxy. The hypernova feedback suppress star formation efficiently, which results in the cosmic star formation rate history peaked at z ~ 4. It also drives galactic outflows efficiently in low mass galaxies, and these winds eject heavy elements into the intergalactic medium. The ejected baryon and metal fraction is larger for less massive galaxies, which results in the mass-metallicity relation of galaxies. We also simulate the chemodynamical evolution of the Milky Way Galaxy, and show the difference of the stellar populations in the bulge and disk.

Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) radio galaxies are generally thought to be the young counterparts of classical extended radio sources and live in massive ellipticals. GPS sources are vital for studying the early evolution of radio-loud AGN, the trigger of their nuclear activity, and the importance of feedback in galaxy evolution. We study the Parkes half-Jansky sample of GPS radio galaxies of which now all host galaxies have been identified and 80% has their redshifts determined (0.122 < z < 1.539). Analysis of the absolute magnitudes of the GPS host galaxies show that at z > 1 they are on average a magnitude fainter than classical 3C radio galaxies. This suggests that the AGN in young radio galaxies have not yet much influenced the overall properties of the host galaxy. However their restframe UV luminosities indicate that there is a low level of excess as compared to passive evolution models.

Image decomposition of galaxies is now routinely used to estimate the structural parameters of galactic components. In this work, I address questions on the reliability of this technique. In particular, do bars and AGN need to be taken into account to obtain the structural parameters of bulges and discs? And to what extent can we trust image decomposition when the physical spatial resolution is relatively poor? With this aim, I performed multi-component (bar/bulge/disc/AGN) image decomposition of a sample of very nearby galaxies and their artificially redshifted images, and verified the effects of removing the bar and AGN components from the models. Neglecting bars can result in a overestimation of the bulge-to-total luminosity ratio of a factor of two, even if the resolution is low. Similar effects result when bright AGN are not considered in the models, but only when the resolution is high. I also show that the structural parameters of more distant galaxies can in general be reliably retrieved, at least up to the point where the physical spatial resolution is ≈ 1.5 Kpc, but bulge parameters are prone to errors if its effective radius is small compared to the seeing radius, and might suffer from systematic effects. I briefly discuss the consequences of these results to our knowledge of the stellar mass budget in the local universe, and finish by showing preliminary results from a large SDSS sample on the dichotomy between classical and pseudo-bulges.

We analyzed the distribution and kinematics of the atomic gas (HI) in 16 nearby spiral galaxies. Our results indicate that the morphology of the atomic gas and dynamically disturbed outer disks correlate with the AGN type present (Seyfert, LINER). From the combined HI and CO data (from the NUGA project), 2-dimensional maps of the gas flow are computed and gas inflow rates are derived as a function of radius within the disks.

We present images of a number of lenticular galaxies which appear to be undergoing evolutionary processes such as ram-pressure stripping or gravitational interactions, or possess features indicative of some evolutionary process in the recent past, such as fossil spiral arms, a polar ring-like structure, or a warped disk with box-peanut bulge. All the galaxies were originally identified on digitally co-added photographic plates or films from the UK Schmidt Telescope, showing that such material is still useful in spite of the modern digital surveys available. In some cases CCD follow up is presented.

We presented the design for a fiber based integral field unit spectrograph for the new two meter class Wendelstein telescope in Bavaria, Germany. The proposed spectrograph will feature a fiberhead consisting of 246 individual optical fibers and a field of view of approximately 1′ × 2′ and two different spectral resolution modes optimized for the study of bulges of local late-type galaxies.

Globular Clusters provide a unique method for tracing the formation and evolution of their host galaxies. As single stellar populations they are far easier to interpret than the multi-population complexity of galaxy field stars. The scaling properties of globular clusters provide important constraints on the hierarchical assembly history of galaxies. Here we briefly review recent progress using the Hubble Space Telescope for imaging and the Keck plus Gemini telescopes for spectroscopy. We argue that the red, or metal-rich, subpopulation of GCs is associated with the bulge/spheroid component of galaxies. As one of the oldest stellar systems available for study, we discuss how globular clusters can be used to constrain the formation of galaxy bulges, in particular the role of mergers vs secular evolution. We conclude that metal-rich GCs, and hence bulges, formed very early in the Universe with more recent mergers having a small effect at most.

This overview of galactic bulges begins with a discussion of the various kinds of bulges (classical, boxy/peanut-shaped, pseudo) and their likely formation mechanisms. Other specific topics include the Galactic bar/bulge and its chemical evolution, the bulge of M31, the relation between bulges and metal-poor halos (often lumped together as spheroids), the morphology-density relation and the formation of S0 galaxies, the color-structure bimodality, and scaling laws for bulges. Finally I will briefly discuss the current difficulty of forming bulgeless disk galaxies in ΛCDM.

Absorption in the X-ray spectra of active galactic nuclei from outflowing gas can be modeled to yield critical physical information on the outflows. The outflow rate of mass ejected back into the ISM of the host galaxy and the resulting feedback could potentially have an impact on evolution. We give a brief overview of the current observational constraints on the outflows that should be taken into account by models of evolution and feedback.

We discuss oxygen and iron abundance patterns in K and M red-giant members of the Galactic bulge and in the young and massive M-type stars inhabiting the very center of the Milky Way. The abundance results from the different bulge studies in the literature, both in the optical and the infrared, indicate that the [O/Fe]-[Fe/H] relation in the bulge does not follow the disk relation, with [O/Fe] values falling above those of the disk. Based on these elevated values of [O/Fe] extending to large Fe abundances, it is suggested that the bulge underwent a rapid chemical enrichment with perhaps a top-heavy initial mass function. The Galactic Center stars reveal a nearly uniform and slightly elevated (relative to solar) iron abundance for a studied sample which is composed of 10 red giants and supergiants. Perhaps of more significance is the fact that the young Galactic Center M-type stars show abundance patterns that are reminiscent of those observed for the bulge population and contain enhanced abundance ratios of α-elements relative to either the Sun or Milky Way disk at near-solar metallicities.

The class ‘bulges’ contains objects with very different formation and evolution paths and very different properties. I review two types of ‘bulges’, the boxy/peanut bulges (B/Ps) and the discy bulges. The former are parts of bars seen edge-on, have their origin in vertical instabilities of the disc and are somewhat shorter in extent than bars. Their stellar population is similar to that of the inner part of the disc from which they formed. Discy bulges have a disc-like outline, i.e., seen face-on they are circular or oval and seen edge-on they are thin. Their extent is of the order of 5 times smaller than that of the boxy/peanut bulges. They form from the inflow of mainly gaseous material to the centre of the galaxy and from subsequent star formation. They thus contain a lot of young stars and gas. Bulges of different types often coexist in the same galaxy. I review the main known results on these two types of bulges and present new simulation results.

B/Ps form about 1Gyr after the bar, via a vertical buckling. At that time the bar strength decreases, its inner part becomes thicker – forming the peanut or boxy shape – and the ratio increases. A second buckling episode is seen in simulations with strong bars, also accompanied by a thickening of the peanut and a weakening of the bar. The properties of the B/Ps correlate strongly with those of the bar: stronger bars have stronger peanuts, a more flat-topped vertical density distribution and have experienced more bucklings.

I also present simulations of disc galaxy formation, which include the formation of a discy bulge. Decomposition of their radial density profile into an exponential disc and a Sérsic bulge gives realistic values for the disc and bulge scale-lengths and mass ratios, and a Sérsic shape index of the order of 1.

It is thus clear that classical bulges, B/P bulges and discy bulges are three distinct classes of objects and that lumping them together can lead to confusion. To avoid this, the two latter could be called B/P features and inner discs, respectively.

Boxy/peanut bulges in disk galaxies have been associated to stellar bars. In this talk, we discuss the different properties of such bulges and their relation with the corresponding bar, using a very large sample of a few hundred numerical N-body simulations. We present and inter-compare various methods of measuring the boxy/peanut bulge properties, namely its strength, shape and possible asymmetry. Some of these methods can be applied to both simulations and observations. Our final goal is to get correlations that will allow us to obtain information on the boxy/peanut bulge for a galaxy viewed face-on as well as information on the bars of galaxies viewed edge-on.

Over the past decade we have learned that probably all ellipticals and bulges contain a central supermassive black hole (SMBH). The mass of the SMBH correlates both with the mass of the bulge component (about 0.15% of the bulge mass) and with the velocity dispersion σ of the bulge. We are investigating whether these relations remain valid or how they change when galaxies with pseudobulges, very low-mass bulges or bulgeless galaxies are considered. Studying SMBH relations for both classical bulges and pseudobulges can reveal the importance of different growing mechanisms (mergers vs. secular evolution) for the evolution of SMBHs. Low-mass classical bulges and bulgeless galaxies may harbour seed black holes in their earliest evolutionary stages, and studying them is of paramount importance for understanding the link between bulge evolution and black hole growth.

Courteau et al. (2007a) reported on the dependence of the ratio of a galaxy's maximum circular velocity, Vc, to its central velocity dispersion, σ0, on morphology, or equivalently total light concentration. This Vc − σ0–concentration relation, which involves details about the local and global galaxy physics, poses a fundamental challenge for galaxy structure models. Furthermore, not only must these models reproduce the Vc − σ0 relation and its various dependences, they must simultaneously match other fundamental scaling relations such as the velocity-size-luminosity and color-luminosity relations. We focus here on the interpretation of parameters that enter the Vc − σ0 relation to enable proper data-model comparisons and follow-up studies by galaxy modelers and observers.

There is now good agreement between the various methods of estimating the space density of the star-formation rate (SFRD) at low redshifts (z < 1), with uncertainties around 30–50%. However, the situation at higher redshifts remains much less clear, with uncertainties in the SFRD, due to e.g. poorly known dust absorption corrections, of as much as 300–500%. Radio emission from star-forming galaxies is unaffected by absorption and scales linearly with star-formation rate, thus the radio luminosity of star-forming galaxies provides an excellent independent, unbiased measure of their star-formation rate. The current deepest ‘blank field’ radio surveys (reaching <10 μJy rms at 1.4 GHz) are sensitive enough to detect starburst galaxies out to z ~ 3, and so potentially offer an excellent way to measure the SFRD. Indeed, modelling of the sub-mJy source counts requires an additional population of faint steep spectrum objects, that are very likely to be starburst galaxies.

We present high sensitivity radio polarimetric (VLA) observations of a galaxy with strong orbital resonances – NGC 4736. The total radio intensity at 8.4 GHz covers smoothly the whole galaxy bulge and reveals a distinct ring of radio emission closely related to the ring morphology visible in infrared, CO and Hα emission. However, the magnetic field reveals a very coherent spiral pattern. The magnetic field vectors are crossing the inner starbursting ring, the dust lanes within the ring and other rather circularly shaped features visible in other gas traces. Either the magnetic field uncovers the pattern of gas motions not seen in other spectral ranges, or the spiral magnetic field is of a pure dynamo origin, ignoring the ringed morphology of the galaxy.

Stellar kinematics show no evidence of hidden mass concentrations at the centre of M83. We show the clearest evidence yet of an age gradient along the starburst arc and interpret the arc to have formed from orbital motion away from a starforming region in the dust lane.

Traditionally, the study of the structural parameters of galaxies have been used to understand the bulge formation processes. However, one piece lost in this study is the three-dimensional shape of the bulges. In this work, the structural parameters of a magnitude-limited sample of 148 unbarred S0-Sb galaxies were derived to study the correlations between bulge and disk parameters as well as the probability distribution function (PDF) of the intrinsic equatorial ellipticity of bulges. A new algorithm (GASP-2D) was used to perform the bidimensional bulge-disk decomposition of J-band galaxy images extracted from the archive of the 2MASS survey. The PDF of intrinsic ellipticities was derived from the distribution of the observed ellipticities of bulges and misalignments between bulges and disks. About 80% of bulges in S0-Sb galaxies are not oblate but triaxial ellipsoids. Their mean axial ratio in the equatorial plane is 〈B/A〉=0.85. There is not significant dependence of their PDF on morphology, light concentration, and luminosity. The scenarios in which bulges assembled from mergers and/or grew over long times through disk secular evolution have to be tested against the derived PDF of bulge intrinsic ellipticities.

We present results on the stellar populations of 232 quiescent galaxies in the Shapley Supercluster, based on spectroscopy from the AAOmega spectrograph at the AAT. The key characteristic of this survey is its coverage of many low-luminosity objects (σ ~ 50 kms−1), with high signal-to-noise (~45 Å−1). Balmer-line age estimates are recovered with ~25% precision even for the faintest sample members. We summarize the observations and absorption line data, and present correlations of derived ages and metallicities with mass and luminosity. We highlight the strong correlation between age and α-element abundance ratio, and the anti-correlation of age and metallicity at fixed mass, which is shown to extend into the low-luminosity regime.