An oscillating vertical displacement of the Milky Way, with a wavelength of about 8 kpc and and amplitude of about 100 pc (increasing with distance from the Galactic center) is observed towards the Galactic anticenter. These oscillations are thought to be the result of disk perturbations from dwarf satellites of the Milky Way. They explain the Monoceros Ring and could be related to Milky Way spiral structure.

We introduce a novel approach to interpreting the well-known spatial correlation of gas densities with on-going star formation. Treated as a closed-loop process involving two physically distinct phases the data can be subdivided into regions that are active and those that are quiescent. The active regions can be distinguished by the presence of high-mass, short-lived, but recently-formed OB stars; the quiescent regions are marked by an absence of these stars and they are considered to be recovering from the last star-formation event and are re-collapsing. The relative (areal) frequencies of those two phases are directly proportional to the relative timescales. For four Local Group galaxies, NGC 6822, the Large & Small Magellanic Clouds, and M33, the cloud assembly/collapse timescales are all found to be monotonically decreasing power-law functions of density, with as yet to be explained differences.

The aim of this study is to determine abundance ratios and star formation histories (SFH) of dwarf ellipticals in the nearby Virgo cluster. We perform a stellar population analysis of 39 dEs and study them using index-index and scaling relations. We find an unusual behaviour where [Na/Fe] is under-abundant w.r.t. solar while [Ca/Fe] is over-abundant.

As an extreme kind of environment, Hickson Compact groups (HCGs) have shown to be very complex systems. HI-VLA observations revealed an intrincated network of HI tails and bridges, tracing pre-processing through extreme tidal interactions. We found HCGs to show a large HI deficiency supporting an evolutionary sequence where gas-rich groups transform via tidal interactions and ISM (interstellar medium) stripping into gas-poor systems. We detected as well a diffuse HI component in the groups, increasing with evolutionary phase, although with uncertain distribution. The complex net of detected HI as observed with the VLA seems hence so puzzling as the missing one. In this talk we revisit the existing VLA information on the HI distribution and kinematics of HCGs by means of X3D visualization. X3D constitutes a powerful tool to extract the most from HI data cubes and a mean of simplifying and easing the access to data visualization and publication via three-dimensional (3-D) diagrams.

We describe the challenges inherent to low surface brightness imaging and present some early results from the Dragonfly Nearby Galaxies survey. Wide field, ultra-low surface brightness imaging (μg > 31 mag arcsec−2) of the first eight galaxies in the survey reveals a rich variety in the distribution of stars in the outskirts of luminous nearby galaxies. The mean stellar halo mass fraction is 0.009 ± 0.005 with a peak-to-peak scatter of a factor of> 100. Some galaxies in the sample feature strongly structured halos resembling that of M31, but three of the eight galaxies have halos that are completely undetected in our data. We conclude that spiral galaxies as a class exhibit a rich variety in stellar halo properties, implying that their assembly histories have been highly non-uniform. While the outskirts of some galaxies are dominated by halos with the rich substructures predicted by numerical simulations, in other cases the outermost parts of galaxies are simply the extrapolated smooth starlight from enormous stellar disks that closely trace neutral gas morphology out to around 20 scale lengths.

We present the results of a multi-wavelength investigation of the dwarf galaxy populations in three interacting galaxy groups: NGC 871/6/7, NGC 3166/9, NGC 4725/47. Using degree-scale Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope Hi mosaics and deep optical photometry from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, we measured the Hi and stellar properties of the gas-rich low-mass group members to classify each one as a classical dwarf galaxy, a short-lived tidal knot or a tidal dwarf galaxy (TDG). Our observations detect several dwarf irregulars and various tidal knots. We identify four potentially long-lived tidal objects in the three groups, implying that TDGs are not readily produced. The tidal objects examined in this small survey also appear to have a wider variety of properties than TDGs formed in current simulations.

Based on observational data from the fourth internal data release of the Gaia-ESO Survey we probe the abundance structure in the Milky Way stellar disk as a function of galactocentric radius and height above the plane. We find that the inner and outer Galactic disks have different chemical signatures. The stars in the inner Galactic disk show abundance signatures of both the thin and thick disks, while the stars in the outer Galactic disk resemble in majority the abundances seen in the thin disk. Assuming that the Galactic thick disk can be associated with the α-enriched population, this can be interpreted as that the thick disk density drops drastically beyond a galactocentric radius of about 10 kpc. This is in agreement with recent findings that the thick disk has a short scale-length, shorter than that of the the thin disk.

We use high-resolution Keck, VLT, or Hubble Space Telescope spectra of background quasars to examine the kinematic properties of the multiphase, metal-enriched circumgalactic medium in the outskirts of galaxies at 0.08 < z gal < 1.0, focusing on the low-ionization Mgii and high-ionization Ovi doublets. The absorption kinematics of low-ionization gas in the circumgalactic medium depend strongly on the star formation activity and the location about the host galaxy, where the largest velocity dispersions are associated with blue, face-on galaxies probed along the minor axis. Conversely, high-ionization gas kinematics are independent of galaxy star formation activity and orientation.

Andromeda XXVII is a dwarf spheroidal galaxy in the outskirts of the Andromeda galaxy (M31). It appears to be dissolving in to the Northern arc of M31, and could be the remnant of a strong tidal disruption. In the upcoming months, our spectroscopic program, which has measured velocities for multiple stars within both the dwarf galaxy progenitor and its stream (using the Keck II DEIMOS telescope, as part of the PAndAS survey), will determine velocity dispersions, scale radii and metallicities of both the dwarf and the stream. This in turn may enable us to ascertain the progenitor mass profile and determine whether it is cusped or cored.

We present new deep co-adds of data taken within Stripe 82 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), especially stacked to reach the faintest surface brightness limits of this data set. Our reduction puts special emphasis on preserving the characteristics of the background (sky + diffuse light) in the input images using a non-aggressive sky subtraction strategy, resulting in an exquisite quality on extremely faint structures. The IAC Stripe 82 co-adds offer a rather unique possibility to study the low surface brightness Universe like stellar haloes and disc truncations, low surface brightness, tidal galactic interactions, extremely faint dwarf galaxies, intra-cluster light or diffuse light from galactic dust. The imaging data is publicly available at http://www.iac.es/proyecto/stripe82/.

We present the results from the state-of-the-art wide-field survey of the M81 galaxy group that we are conducting with Hyper Suprime-Cam on Subaru Telescope. Our photometry reaches about 2 mag below the tip of the red giant branch (RGB) and reveals the spatial distribution of both old and young stars over an area of 5°2 around the M81. The young main-sequence (MS) stars closely follow the HI distribution and can be found in a stellar stream between M81 and NGC 3077 and in numerous outlying stellar associations. Our survey also reveals for the first time the very extended (>2 × R25) halos of RGB stars around M81, M82, and NGC 3077, as well as faint tidal streams that link these systems. The gravitational interactions between M81, M82 and NGC 3077 galaxies induced star formation in tidally stripped gas, and also significantly perturbed the older stellar components leading to disturbed halo morphologies.

Understanding the distribution of gas in galaxies and its interaction with the IGM is crucial to complete the picture of galaxy evolution. At all redshifts, absorption features seen in QSO spectra serve as a unique probe of the gaseous content of foreground galaxies and the IGM, extending out to 200 kpc. Studies show that star formation history is intimately related to the co-evolution of galaxies and the IGM. In order to study the environments traced by absorption systems and the role of inflows and outflows, it is critical to measure the emission properties of host galaxies and their halos. We overcome the challenge of detecting absorption host galaxies with the MUSE integral field spectrograph on VLT. MUSE’s large field of view and sensitivity to emission lines has allowed a never-before seen match between the number density of absorbers along QSO sightlines and the number density of emission line galaxies within 200 kpc of the QSO. These galaxies represent a sample for which previously elusive connections can be made between mass, metallicity, SFR, and absorption.

We derived a revised expression for the tidal radius, which is a theoretical boundary of a satellite orbiting a host. Our expression properly takes into account possible rotation of the satellite. We verified our predictions against simulations and obtained satisfactory agreement.

The origin of thick disks is still a matter of debate. To explore such structures in unprecedented detail, we have developed a technique to reach a surface brightness limit of 28.5-29 mag/arcsec2 with the combined g, r, i bands images from the IAC Stripe82 Legacy Project (Fliri & Trujillo, 2016). We present the characterisation of the thick disk in the edge-on galaxy UGC 01040. We carefully analyse the background subtraction and masking process. The effects of the PSF are considered through galaxy modelling. We present the study of radial and vertical surface brightness profiles, making a comparison between our data, the convolved and deconvolved models and its galactic components. We find that PSF effects are important, but can be accounted for. Our technique will allow us to model thick disks in external galaxies and elucidate their formation and evolutionary history.

We have developed a new technique using a novel approach to analyze unresolved stellar populations of spatially-resolved galaxies based on large sky multi-filter surveys. We have successfully applied this technique to 42 early-type galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey. In agreement with some previous work, we find the gradients of early-type galaxies to be on average slightly positive in age and negative in metallicity at large radii (R > Reff). These mildly negative metallicity gradients support a merging scenario. The positive/flat age gradients could support a more uniformly distributed star formation or even secondary burst triggered by mergers.

We study fundamental properties of transonic galactic outflows in the gravitational potential of a cold dark matter halo (DMH) with a central super-massive black hole (SMBH) assuming a polytropic, steady and spherically symmetric state. We have classified the transonic solutions with respect to their topology in the phase space. As a result, we have found two types of transonic solutions characterized by a magnitude relationship between the gravity of DMH and that of SMBH. These two types of solutions have different loci of the transonic points; one transonic point is formed at a central region (< 0.01kpc) and another is at a distant region (> 100kpc). Also, mass fluxes and outflow velocities are different between the two solutions. These two transonic solutions may play different roles on the star formation history of galaxies and the metal contamination of intergalactic space. Furthermore, we have applied our model to the Sombrero galaxy. In this galaxy, the wide-spread hot gas is detected as an apparent trace of galactic outflows while the star-formation rate is disproportionately low, and the observed gas density distribution is quite similar to the hydrostatic state (Li et al. 2011). To solve this discrepancy, we propose a slowly accelerating outflow in which the transonic point forms in a distant region (~ 120 kpc) and the subsonic region spreads across the stellar distribution. In the subsonic region, the gas density distribution is similar to that of the hydrostatic state. Our model predicts the possibility of the slowly accelerating outflow in the Sombrero galaxy. Igarashi et al. 2014 used the isothermal model and well reproduced the observed gas density distribution, but the estimated mass flux (1.8M ⊙/yr) is lager than the mass of the gas supplied by stars (0.3-0.4M ⊙/yr). Then, we expect that the polytropic model may reproduce the observational mass of the supplied gas (Igarashi et al. 2015). Such slowly accelerating outflows should be distinguished from the conventional supersonic outflows frequently argued in star-forming galaxies.

Star formation histories of local dwarf galaxies, derived through resolved stellar populations, appear complex and varied. The general picture derived from hydrodynamical simulations is one of cold gas accretion and bursty star formation, followed by feedback from supernovae and winds that heat and eject the central gas reservoirs. This ejection halts star formation until the material cools and re-accretes, resulting in an episodic SFH, particularly at stellar masses below ~ 109 M⊙. Such feedback has often been cited as the driving force behind the observed slowly-rising rotation curves in local dwarfs, due to an under-density of dark matter compared to theoretical models, which is one of the primary challenges to LCDM cosmology. However, these events have not yet been directly observed at high-redshift. Recently, using HST imaging and grism spectroscopy, we have uncovered an abundant population of low-mass galaxies (M* < 109 M⊙) at z = 1 - 2 that are undergoing strong bursts of star formation, in agreement with the theoretical predictions. These Extreme Emission Line Galaxies, with high specific SFRs and shallow gravitational potential wells, are ideal places to test the theoretical prediction of strong feedback-driven outflows. Here we use deep MUSE spectroscopy to search these galaxies for signatures of outflowing material, namely kinematic offsets between absorption lines (in the restframe optical and UV), which trace cool gas, and the nebular emission lines, which define the systemic redshift of the galaxy. Although the EELGs are intrinsically very faint, stacked spectra reveal blueshifted velocity centroids for Fe II absorption, which is indicative of outflowing cold gas. This represents the first constraint on outflows in M* < 109 M⊙ galaxies at z = 1 - 2. These outflows should regulate the star formation histories of low-mass galaxies at early cosmic times and thus play a crucial role in galaxy growth and evolution.

Nuclear Star Clusters (NSCs) are commonly observed in the centers of most galaxies, including our Milky Way (MW). While their study can reveal important information about the innermost regions of galaxies, the physical processes regulating their formation are still poorly understood. We explore a possible merger origin of NSCs by studying direct N-body simulations of globular clusters (GCs) that are initially randomly distributed in the outskirts and consecutively infall to the center of a MW-like nuclear bulge. We find that the NSC that forms through this process shows a significant amount of rotation, and both morphological and kinematic properties are comparable with observations of the MW NSC. We show that no fine-tuning of the orientation of the infalling GCs is necessary to result in a rotating NSC. This study shows the plausibility of the cluster infall scenario and can help towards setting better constraints to the formation history of NSCs.

We found that star-forming regions in extended ultraviolet (XUV) disks are generally consistent with the molecular-hydrogen Kennicutt-Schmidt law that applies within the inner, optical disk. This is true for star formation rates based on Hα + 24 μm data or FUV + 24 μm data. We estimated that the star-forming regions have ages of 1 − 7 Myr and propose that the presence or absence of molecular gas provides an additional “clock” that may help distinguish between aging and stochasticity as the explanation for the low Hα-to-FUV flux ratios in XUV disks. This contribution is a summary of the work originally presented in Watson et al. (2016).