Nicola Menci Homepage
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Current Activity
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Theory of galaxy formation and evolution: theoretical predictions (luminosity functions, Mass-Luminosity relation, counts, redshift distributions, galaxy sizes) vs. observations. The predictions of a semi-analytic model for galaxy formation in hierarchical clustering scenarios are compared with data from large telescopes (NTT, VLT, HST) to gain insight into the physical processes governing the formation and the evolution of galaxies: evolution of dark matter halos, radiative cooling of gas, formation of rotationally supported disks, star formation, supernovae feedback, galaxy merging and associated starbusts, dust absorption. The activity takes advantage of a tight collaboration with the Observational Cosmology Group in |
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X-ray clusters of galaxies: modelling the physics of the X-ray emitting gas in the evolving dark matter potential wells of groups and clusters of galaxies. The models include the accretion of gas from external, merging lumps; the fomation of shocks at the cluster boundary; the adiabatic compression of the gas inside the clusters. The outcomes are compared with X-ray observables like the correlations of the temperature with the X-ray luminosity and the entropy, the X-ray counts. Besides constraining the cosmological scenarios, the investigation aims at understanding the competing role of gravity and star formation in determining the thermal and dynamical state of the cosmic diffuse baryons. Recent developments include the comparison with data from last generation X-ray telescopes like Chandra and XMM. |
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The cosmological mass function from non-linear dark matter dynamics. The role of binary aggregation of clumps inside dark matter halos is investigated to probe the relavance of such non-linear dynamical processes on the mass distribution of cosmic structures, from galaxies to clusters. The link between the binary aggregation mode of mass growth and the non-linear dynamics of the cosmic dark matter field is of particular interest, since the latter naturally includes the two leading phenomena responsible for the growth of cosmic structures: the direct collapse of regions and the aggregation of clumps inside collapsed dark matter overdensestrucures. |
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Galaxy interactions: galaxy interactions affect the space and velocity distribution of galaxies inside groups and clusters. Merging of galaxies in the central regions can decrease the average velocity (velocity bias) and lead to a concentration of luminous galaxies in the cluster cores (luminosity segregations). In addition, the enhanced star formation triggered by galaxy interactions affects the luminous properties of the galaxy pouplation in groups and clusters. Statistical models for the mass and velocity distribution of galaxies are developed and compared to observed colors, radial distribution of galaxy velocities and flux counts to asses the relavance of merging processes in the dynamical and luminous evolution of galaxy clusters. |
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The semi-analytic model
of galaxy formation and AGN evolution |
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Recent
Publications (downloadable
in ps or pdf
format) |
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List of Publications |
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Pointers to Useful Links |
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Lectures |
Updated March 2003