Structure and scaling relations in disc galaxies: bars, peanuts and black holes

This thesis has developed quantitative methods to study stellar structures in galaxies, as seen in astronomical imaging at optical and infra-red wavelengths. These novel algorithms and techniques were used to gain new insight into evolutionary processes occurring in spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, with a focus on their stellar discs, bars and their dynamical (“buckling”) instabilities, their central bulges, and galaxy–(black hole) co-evolution in the previously unexplored regime of “intermediate-mass” black holes. The methods developed throughout are expected to be useful for a plethora of issues in extragalactic astrophysics, helping to further our understanding of galaxy evolution.