Structures in galaxies: nature versus nurture. Input from theory and simulations

TL;DR

This paper reviews how galaxy structures form through natural evolution or external interactions, highlighting their importance in understanding galaxy composition and history via theoretical and simulation studies.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of formation scenarios for galaxy structures, emphasizing the roles of nature and nurture through theory and simulations.

Findings

Structures reveal galaxy mass distribution and dark matter content.

Formation mechanisms include internal evolution and external interactions.

Properties of structures inform galaxy evolutionary history.

Abstract

Galaxies, in particular disc galaxies, contain a number of structures and substructures with well defined morphological, photometric and kinematic properties. Considerable theoretical effort has been put into explaining their formation and evolution, both analytically and with numerical simulations. In some theories, structures form during the natural evolution of the galaxy, i.e. they are a result of nature. For others, it is the interaction with other galaxies, or with the intergalactic medium -- i.e. nurture -- that accounts for a structure. Either way, the existence and properties of these structures reveal important information on the underlying potential of the galaxy, i.e. on the amount and distribution of matter -- including the dark matter -- in it, and on the evolutionary history of the galaxy. Here, I will briefly review the various formation scenarios and the respective role of nature and nurture in the formation, evolution and properties of the main structures and substructures.