Past projects
- MSc theses
- «Thick and thin disc formation and evolution in eight late-type galaxies from their two-dimensional stellar population analysis» – Natascha Sattler, University of Heidelberg, Germany (08/2022 – 07/2023) – Derived publication: Sattler, N., Pinna, F. et al. (2025), “Relatively young thick disks in star-forming late-type galaxies”. A&A, 698, A235.
- BSc theses
- «Study of the Evolution of Disk Galaxies through the Stellar Velocity Ellipsoid» – Ernesto Quintana Ojeda, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Spain (10/2023 – 06/2025)
- «The disk structure of the spiral galaxy NGC 3501» – Natascha Sattler, University of Heidelberg, Germany (11/2020 – 04/2021) – Derived publication: Sattler, N., Pinna, F. et al. (2023): “The vertical structure of the spiral galaxy NGC 3501: first stages of the formation of a thin metal-rich disk”, MNRAS, 520, 3066.
- «The origin of NGC 4710’s thick disk» – Celine Madlen Greis, University of Heidelberg, Germany (11/2021 – 04/2022)
- Summer Projects
- «Assessment and improvement of an analytical model to fit the stellar velocity ellipsoid of disks in galaxies» – Pablo Rodríguez Beltrán, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Spain (07/2019 – 09/2019)
- «The gas content of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC3501» – Marcelina Kinyumu, Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA), Germany (05/2023 – 08/2023)
- «Disentangling Host and Nuclear Spectra in type-I AGN through an innovative approach in Integral Field Spectroscopy» – co-supervised – Pablo Drake Hernández, Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), Spain (07/2024 – 09/2024)
Ongoing projects
- MSc theses
- «Uncovering the properties of galactic disks in GECKOS» – Miguel de Loreto Neto, Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil (03/2025 – exp. 02/2027)
- «Análisis de la zona central de la galaxia espiral NGC4701 con espectroscopía de campo integral» – Julio Carlos Bertua Marasca, Universidad de La Rioja (UNIR), España (02/2025 – exp. 07/2026)
- BSc theses
- «The ionized-gas content of the edge-on spiral galaxy NGC3501» – Pablo Felipe Blanco Medina, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Spain (10/2025 – exp. 07/2026)
- «Identifying different stellar structures at the centers of face-on spiral galaxies: M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy» – Josafat González Rodríguez, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Spain (10/2025 – exp. 07/2026)
- «Properties of galactic centers in spiral galaxies with integral-field spectroscopy at Gran Telescopio Canarias» – Laura Acosta González, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), Spain (10/2024 – exp. 07/2026)
- Internship (Prácticas Externas)
- «Actualización del código de descomposición espectro-fotométrica C2D de IDL a Python» – Alejandro Lugo Migueláñez, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL, Matemáticas), Spain (10/2025 – exp. 03/2026)
Available projects
- MSc / BSc theses
- «Bimodalities of thick and thin disks in the [Mg/Fe]-metallicity plane«: This project aims to investigate bimodalities in the distribution of abundances of 𝛼 elements such as Mg, in the plane with metallicity. Clear trends were found in the Milky Way for thick and thin disks in this plane, and this was recently studied in AURIGA zoom-in cosmological simulations (Pinna et al. 2024b). The student will use results from full-spectrum fitting of edge-on galaxies for [Mg/Fe] and metallicity (see references: Pinna et al. 2019a, b; Sattler et al. 2023 and 2024), extracted from MUSE integral-field spectroscopy data. These results will be analyzed in the [Mg/Fe] – metallicity plane, following the method in Pinna et al. (2024b), to assess whether observed external galaxies show such bimodality as the Milky Way.
- «Identifying different stellar structures at the centers of face-on spiral galaxies with the CAPIVARA segmentation code: M101«: We propose to identify coexisting internal structures in the center of the face-on spiral galaxy M101, such as its nuclear star cluster. For this purpose, the student will apply the new Python code CAPIVARA to integral-field spectroscopy data cubes from the instrument MEGARA mounted at the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) in La Palma. CAPIVARA will allow the identification of different internal structures that will be later analyzed through spectral fitting. The student will extract maps of different kinematic and stellar population parameters, such as velocities, ages and metallicities of the stars, which will unveil traces about the formation history of galactic structures. The student will not only familiarize themselves with galaxy evolution physics but also acquire advanced data-analysis and programming skills, with experience in machine-learning based code (CAPIVARA) involving the use of GPUs.
- «Identifying different stellar structures at the centers of face-on spiral galaxies with the CAPIVARA segmentation code: NGC4701«: This project is designed in the same way as the previous one, but for the galaxy NGC4701.
- PhD theses
- «Uncovering the first stages of galaxy evolution: the formation of thick disks in a cosmological context«: Most lenticular and spiral galaxies show a thin brighter disk in their midplane, and a thicker fainter envelope, called the thick disk. Thick disks are thought to trace the first stages of the life of a galaxy and are of paramount importance to understanding galaxy evolution. In spite of the recent progress, their origin is still unclear. While recent observational and numerical studies point to a combination of in-situ formation, accretion of stars from satellites, and dynamical heating of a preexisting thinner stellar disk, the interplay and balance among them is still uncertain and the role of galaxy mass and environment is still uncharted waters. This project aims to fill this gap by scanning the properties of thick disks in galaxies of different masses and across different cosmological environments, using the TNG50 cosmological large-volume simulation. The student will analyze the properties of thick disks in galaxies located in galaxy clusters and groups, as well as in isolation, and trace back their formation by analyzing snapshots of the simulations at different redshifts. This will be performed, on the one hand, in a statistical and theoretical sense, including samples of thousands of galaxies and, on the other, by mocking integral-field spectroscopy (IFS) observations, which will be compared with data from the new GECKOS survey of edge-on galaxies. Existing machine learning techniques will be prioritized for both approaches in the analysis.
- «Zooming in and out: the evolutionary connection between galactic nuclei at small scale and the global galaxy at larger scale«: Nuclear star clusters (NSCs) are very dense systems, with a few-parsec size, located at the center of a galaxy, which is often inhabited by supermassive black holes (SMBHs). Both SMBHs and NSCs are tightly linked to the host-galaxy evolution and the same large-scale processes, such as gas inflow, may feed SMBHs and impact NSC formation and growth. This project aims at unveiling the evolutionary connection of NSCs with SMBHs, an important piece of the puzzle of galaxy evolution, and constraining the dominant channels for NSCs formation and for active-galactic-nuclei (AGNs) triggering. This project proposes a multi-scale analysis of galaxies with integral-field spectroscopy, zooming into the tiny scales of NSC sizes and out to the global galaxy. The student will start with the smallest scales, focusing on spatially resolved stellar-population properties of NSCs. Then they will zoom out a little, and analyze integrated stellar populations of NSCs to be compared with the properties of their immediate surroundings. This work will uncover the past formation and growth of these NSCs and discuss differences between active and non-active galaxies to identify potential NSC-formation and AGN common triggers. Finally, the student will compare large-scale properties of a large sample of AGN host galaxies with a control sample without an AGN. This will reveal the mechanisms triggering AGN activity and the impact of AGN feedback on the observed properties.
Please contact me if you need more information: Contact Francesca Pinna