2012/08/10 by Dimitri A. Gadotti, Gadotti, Dimitri A.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1208.2295
In press; 16 pages, 15 figures; notes to the PhD School of Astrophysics "F. Lucchin", held in Erice, Italy, September 2011; G. Bono, M. Zoccali (eds.)
arxiv created 2012/08/10 · openalex publication_date 2012/08/10 · arxiv updated 2012/08/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Our knowledge on the central components of disk galaxies has grown substantially in the past few decades, particularly so in the last. This frantic activity and the complexity of the subject promote confusion in the community. In these notes, I discuss the concept of galactic bulge and its different flavors. I also address fundamental scaling relations and the bulge-elliptical galaxy connection, their central black holes and formation models. In particular, I aim at conveying three important notions: (i): box/peanuts are just the inner parts of bars; (ii): the physical reality of two different families of bulges is evident; and (iii): at the high mass end, at least, classical bulges are not just scaled down ellipticals surrounded by disks.