On the Generation of the Hubble Sequence through an Internal Secular Dynamical Process

Abstract

The secular evolution process, which slowly transforms the morphology of a galaxy over its lifetime, could naturally account for observed properties of the great majority of physical galaxies if both stellar and gaseous accretion processes are taken into account. As an emerging paradigm for galaxy evolution, its dynamical foundation had been established in the past few years, and its observational consequences are yet to be fully explored. The secular evolution picture provides a coherent framework for understanding the extraordinary regularity and the systematic variation of galaxy properties along the Hubble sequence.