Elliptical galaxies and bulges of disc galaxies: Summary of progress and outstanding issues

Abstract

Bulge components of disc galaxies are the high-density centers interior to their outer discs. Once thought to be equivalent to elliptical galaxies, their observed properties and formation histories turn out to be richer and more varied than those of ellipticals. This book reviews progress in many areas of bulge studies. Two advances deserve emphasis: (1) Observations divide bulges into "classical bulges" that look indistinguishable from ellipticals and "pseudobulges" that are discier and (except in S0s) more actively star-forming than are ellipticals. Classical bulges and ellipticals are thought to form by major galaxy mergers. Discy pseudobulges are a product of the slow ("secular") evolution of galaxy discs. Nonaxisymmetries such as bars and oval distortions transport some disc gas toward the center, where it starbursts and builds a dense central component that is discier in structure than are classical bulges. Secular evolution explains many regular structures (e.g., rings) seen in galaxy discs. It is a new area of galaxy evolution work that complements hierarchical clustering. (2) Studies of high-redshift galaxies reveal that their discs are so gas-rich that they are violently unstable to the formation of mass clumps that sink to the center and merge. This is an alternative channel for the formation of classical bulges. This chapter summarizes big-picture successes and unsolved problems in the formation of bulges and ellipticals and their coevolution (or not) with supermassive black holes. I present an observer's perspective on simulations of cold dark matter galaxy formation including baryonic physics. Our picture of the quenching of star formation is becoming general and secure at redshifts z < 1. I conclude with a list of major uncertainties and problems. The biggest challenge is to produce realistic bulgesCellipticals and realistic discs that overlap over a factor of >1000 in mass but that differ from each other as we observe over that whole range. A related difficulty is how hierarchical clustering makes so many giant, bulgeless galaxies in field but not cluster environments. I present arguments that we rely too much on star-formation feedback and AGN feedback to solve these challenges.