Secular Evolution in Disk Galaxies

Understand

Self-gravitating systems evolve toward the most tightly bound configuration that is reachable via available evolution processes.

• The inner parts shrink and the outer parts expand, provided that some physical process transports energy or angular momentum outward.
• The evolution of stars, star clusters, protostellar and protoplanetary disks, black hole accretion disks, and galaxy disks are all fundamentally similar.
• These processes for galaxy disks are the subjects of my lectures and of this Canary Islands Winter School.