Structure and dynamics of galaxies and their dark matter halos

我的研究活动将集中在两个相互关联的领域：星系天文学和暗物质的性质。 美丽、雄伟、多样的星系在天文学知识中占有特殊的地位。 虽然许多星系看起来是孤立和静止的，但它们在不断演化，形成棒和旋臂，吞噬卫星星系，并相互合并。 我和我的合作者，论文学生，正在建立盘状星系的理想模型来研究这些复杂的过程。 我们通过调整模型的参数来拟合实际星系的观测数据，并使用数值模拟来研究它们的演化。 我们已经为我们的银河系建立了一套模型，发现它们发展出类似于自然界中所看到的条形和螺旋结构。 在未来，我们将把气体盘和球状星团纳入模型。 我们还将研究星系与星系之间的相互作用。

My research activities will focus on two interrelated areas: galactic astronomy and the nature of dark matter. Beautiful, majestic, and remarkably diverse, galaxies occupy a special place in astronomical lore. While many galaxies appear to be isolated and quiescent, they are continually evolving, forming bars and spiral arms, swallowing up satellite galaxies, and merging with one another. My collaborators, thesis students, and I are building idealized models of disk galaxies to study these complicated processes. We fit observational data for actual galaxies by tuning the parameters of the model and study their evolution using numerical simulations. We have built a suite of models for our galaxy, the Milky Way, and found that they develop bars and spiral structure similar to what is seen in nature. In the future, we will incorporate gaseous disks and globular clusters into the model. We will also study galaxy-galaxy interactions.