2:30pm Monday October 11 in Curia II
I discuss possible origins of scaling laws relating structural properties of disk galaxies within the context of hierarchically clustering theories of galaxy formation. I argue that observed correlations between the total luminosity, rotation speed, and angular momentum of disk galaxies are the result of the approximately scalefree formation process of the massive halos they inhabit. Recent gasdynamical simulations that incorporate the effects of star formation illustrate these global trends and highlight the difficulties faced by models that envision disk galaxies as the final outcome of a hierarchical sequence of merger events.