Gerhardt Meuer (University of Western Australia)

The Good and Stable Life of Galaxies - Gerhardt Meuer Seminar

Abstract

Our universe has passed the peak of star formation activity. Galaxies
are accelerating away from each other, and their evolution is becoming
more dominated by secular proceses. Indeed, observations show that
galaxy disks have reached an equilibrium stability throughout their
optically bright portions and beyond. I will show that the assumption
of a uniform stability provides a good model for the structure of
present day disk galaxies. It allows us to resolve some long known
puzzles and provides a bridge between star formation, the gas
and dark matter within galaxies. I will describe our current work on
the constant stability disk models and prospects for understanding the
main-sequence of star forming galaxies and their evolution.