Galaxies comic

My Research

My main interest of research centers around the formation and evolution of galaxies in different environments, and we currently live in the golden age of this field of research, with unprecedented simulations and observations available to understand the details of how sturctures in our Universe are formed.

A large part of my work is dedicated to the understanding of the interaction between the baryonic and the dark components of galaxies, and how this is influenced by the evolution history of a galaxy. This work so far mostly centred around early-type (or elliptical) galaxies, but recently advanced towards disk galaxies as well. I also work on the build-up of the outer stellar halos of galaxies, from Milky-Way mass up to BCGs (the brightest galaxies within galaxy clusters), in a combined approach from full cosmological simulations and idealized models, to decipher the information about a galaxies’ formation history hidden in the observed density, kinematic, and metallicity profiles. The third big topic I am interested in is the build-up of galaxy groups and galaxy clusters, and the evolution of galaxies therein. The group and cluster environments are the most active environments, with many interactions between galaxies of different kinds and between galaxies and their environment, and most galaxies nowadays actually live in these dense environments. Thus, galaxy groups and cluster are the perfect laboratories to understand the interactions of the different physical processes that lead to morphological transitions of galaxies

To answer the scientific questions that I want to address, I use both numerical simulations as well as theoretical models. Large parts of my research involve the Magneticum Pathfinder simulations, a suite of several cosmological boxes of different sizes and resolutions. This simulation suit includes the currently largest existing baryonic cosmological box with more than 2000Mpc box-length.

To learn more about the different research subjects I am working on, choose a link on the left or visit the webpages of the DRAGONS Team.

Last update 27.01.2021 by Rhea-Silvia