We have investigated the chemo-dynamical evolution of a Milky Way-like disk galaxy, AqC4, produced by a cosmological simulation integrating a sub-resolution ISM model. We evidence a global inside-out and upside-down disk evolution, that is consistent with a scenario where the “thin disk” stars are formed from the accreted gas close to the galactic plane, while the older “thick disk” stars are originated in situ at higher heights. Also, the bar appears the most effective heating mechanism in the inner disk. Finally, no significant metallicity-rotation correlation has been observed, in spite of the presence of a negative [Fe/H] radial gradient.

We studied the imprints that feedback from Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) leaves on the intracluster plasma during the assembly history of galaxy clusters. To this purpose we used state-of-the-art cosmological hydrodynamical simulations based on an updated version of the Tree-PM SPH GADGET-3 code, comparing three sets of simulations with different prescriptions for the physics of baryons (including AGN and/or stellar feedback). We explore the effect of these different physics, in particular AGN feedback, on IntraCluster medium (ICM) properties observed via Sunyaev-Zel’dovich (SZ) effect using an extended set of galaxy clusters (~100 clusters with M500 masses above 5 × 1013M⊙/h). Some of the main findings are that the scaling relation between the integrated SZ flux and the galaxy cluster total mass is in good accordance with several observed samples, especially for massive clusters, and does not show any clear redshift evolution, with the slope of the relation close to the theoretical one in the AGN feedback case. As for the scatter of this relation, we obtain a mild dependence on the cluster dynamical state.

Thick disks have been observed in many disk galaxies and our Galaxy, the Milky Way, also presents a thick disk whose main spatial, kinematic, and chemical features of this population are well established. However, the origin of this ancient component is still unclear in spite the many studies carried out and several formation scenarios proposed until now. For the first time to our knowledge, we found evidence of a kinematics-metallicity correlation, of about 40–50 km s-1 per dex, amongst thick disk stars at 1 kpc  < |z| < 3 kpc and with abundance −1 <[Fe/H]< −0.5. This finding sets important constraints on the origin of the thick disk in the context of CDM hierarchical galaxy formation mechanisms and of secular evolutionary processes in galactic disks. This result is reported and, preliminary results, based on new N-body high numerical resolution simulations of stellar disks endowed with a bulge inside a dark matter NFW halo, are presented.