Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 106-115). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

No description available.

Thesis (doctoral)--Tartu University, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (54-61).

The dynamical evolution of substructure within dark matter halos is of central importance in determining many aspects of galaxy formation and galaxy evolution in cold dark matter cosmologies. The overall sequence in which the different stellar components of galaxies are assembled, the survival of galactic disks, the number of dwarf satellites orbiting giant galaxies, and the nature of stellar material in galactic halos all depend on the dynamics of halo substructure. In this thesis, I develop an analytic description of the evolution of substructure within a dark matter halo, and use it to construct a semi-analytic model of the formation and evolution of disk galaxies. Substructure within an individual halo is modelled as a set of distinct subhalos, orbiting in a smooth background. These subhalos evolve through three main processes: dynamical friction, tidal mass loss, and tidal heating. By including analytic descriptions of these three processes explicitly in a simple orbital integration scheme, it is possible to reproduce the results of high-resolution numerical simulations at a fraction of the computational expense. The properties of a subhalo can be estimated with an accuracy of 20%, until it has lost most of its mass or been disrupted. Using this description of satellite dynamics, I construct a semi-analytic model for the evolution of a galaxy or cluster halo. I show that this model reproduces the basic features of numerical simulations, and use it to investigate two major problems in current galaxy formation scenarios: the prediction of excessive substructure in galaxy halos, and the survival of galactic disks in halos filled with substructure. I show that the small number of dwarf galaxies observed in the Local Group can be explained by considering the effects of reionisation on star formation in small halos. The stellar luminosities predicted in this case match the observed luminosities of local satellites. The predicted spatial distribution, sizes and characteristic velocities of dwarf galaxies are also consistent with those observed locally. Many of these satellite galaxies are disrupted by tidal stripping or encounters. I investigate the properties of their debris, and show that its total mass and spatial distribution are similar to those of the stellar halo of the Milky Way. Furthermore, the stars in this debris are mainly old, satisfying another observational constraint on models of galaxy formation. Some satellites have been disrupted fairly recently, however, suggesting that coherent tidal streams may still be visible at the present day. Finally, I investigate the effects of encounters on the central disk within the main halo. I find that the rate of disruptive encounters drops off sharply after the galaxy is assembled, such that the typical disk has remained undisturbed for the past 8–10 billion years. Less disruptive encounters are more common, and disks are often heated as they re-form after their last disruption, producing components like the thick disk of the Milky Way. These results may resolve the long-standing uncertainty about disk ages in hierarchical, cold dark matter cosmologies. It is less clear whether the bulge-to-disk mass ratios predicted by the model, for the currently favoured LCDM cosmology, are consistent with observations. The relative mass of the bulge in typical disk galaxies may place an upper limit on the age of their stellar contents. / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Physics and Astronomy." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation is the sum of five studies of the structure and evolution of circumstellar disks, the birthplace of planets. These studies are all based on Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope, and taken together trace the evolution of disks from the optically thick primordial stage to the optically thin debris disk stage. The five projects included in this dissertation are diverse but they are all interconnected and have a common underlying motivation: to impose observational constraints on different aspects of planet formation theories. In the first project, we study the near and mid-IR (1.2-24 [mu]m) emission of Classical T Tauri Star (CTTS), which are low-mass pre-main sequence (PMS) stars that show clear evidence for accretion. We discuss the implications of our results on the structure of their inner disks and their estimated ages. In the second project, we study the incidence as a function of age of disks around weak-line T Tauri stars (low-mass PMS stars that are mostly coeval with CTTS but that do not show clear evidence for accretion) and explore the structure of these disks. We estimate the dissipation timescale of the planet-forming region of primordial disks and discuss the implications for planet formation theories. The third and fourth projects deal with the evolution of angular momentum of PMS stars. We search for observational evidence for the connection between stellar rotation and the presence of a disk predicted by the current disk-braking paradigm, according to which the rotational evolution of PMS stars is regulated through magnetic interactions between the stellar magnetosphere and the inner disk. The last project deals with debris disks, which are second-generation disks where the dust is continuously replenished by collisions between planetesimals. We search for debris disks in the far-IR (24-160 [mu]m) around a sample of Hyades Cluster members. We discuss the implications of our results on the evolution of debris disks and on the Late Heavy Bombardment in the Solar System. / text

No description available.