Related papers: Metal-Poor Stars
A long sought after goal using chemical abundance patterns derived from metal-poor stars is to understand the Galactic chemical evolution (GCE) and to pin down the nature of the first stars (Pop III). Here, we use a sample of 14 metal-poor…
The first stars were likely more massive than those forming today and thus rapidly evolved, exploding as supernovae and enriching the surrounding gas with their chemical products. In the Local Group, the chemical signature of the first…
A substantial fraction of metal-poor stars in the local Milky Way halo exhibit large overabundances of carbon. These stars, dubbed Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor (CEMP) stars, provide crucial constraints on the nature of the early universe…
The oldest stars in the universe retain to a great extent detailed information on the chemical composition of the interstellar medium at the time of their birth. Hence the earliest phases of Galactic chemical evolution and nucleosynthesis…
We present the results of binary population simulations of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars. We show that nitrogen and fluorine are useful tracers of the origin of CEMP stars, and conclude that the observed paucity of very…
We describe how star formation is expected to proceed in the early metal-free Universe, focusing on the very first generations of stars. We then discuss how the star formation process may change as the effects of metallicity, external…
High redshift quasars mark the locations where massive galaxies are rapidly being assembled and forming stars. There is growing evidence that quasar environments are metal-rich out to redshifts of at least five. The gas-phase metallicities…
This study is aimed at identifying possible low-mass and sub-stellar companions to stars with well-determined metallicities. We investigate the multiplicity of metal-poor stars along with its impact on formation processes in the conditions…
Moderately r-process-enriched stars (r-I) are at least four times as common as those that are greatly enriched in r-process elements (r-II), and the abundances in their atmospheres are important tools for obtaining a better understanding of…
The origin of carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars and their possible connections with the chemical elements produced by the first stellar generations is still highly debated. We briefly review observations of CEMP stars in different…
We investigate the star formation and chemical evolution in the early universe by considering the merging history of the Galaxy in the {\Lambda}CDM scenario according to the extended Press-Schechter theory. We give some possible constraints…
Large dust grains can fluctuate dramatically in their local density, relative to gas, in neutral, turbulent disks. Small, high-redshift galaxies (before reionization) represent ideal environments for this process. We show via simple…
The first galaxies contain stars born out of gas with little or no metals. The lack of metals is expected to inhibit efficient gas cooling and star formation but this effect has yet to be observed in galaxies with oxygen abundance relative…
The formation of stars is a key process in the early universe with far reaching consequences for further cosmic evolution. While stars forming from truly primordial gas are thought to be considerably more massive than our Sun, stars in the…
Low-metallicity stars preserve the signatures of the first stellar nucleosynthesis events in the Galaxy, as their surface abundances reflect the composition of the interstellar medium from which they were born. Aside from primordial Big…
The earliest phases of the chemical evolution of our Galaxy are analysed in the light of the recent VLT results (concerning abundance patterns in the most metal-poor stars of the Galactic halo) and of stellar nucleosynthesis calculations.…
We present extensive evolutionary models of stars with initial zero-metallicity, covering a large range of initial masses (i.e. 0.7 <= M <= 100 Msun). Calculations are carried out at constant mass, with updated input physics, and applying…
We review the possibility that metallicity could provide a diagnostic for the age of a galaxy, hence that the most metal-poor star forming galaxies in the local universe may be genuinely young. Indeed, observational evidence for downsizing…
Unevolved metal poor stars are the witness of the early evolution of the Galaxy. The determination of their detailed chemical composition is an important tool to understand the chemical history of our Galaxy. The study of their chemical…
We present results from deep Spitzer/Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) observations of 28 metal-poor, strongly star-forming galaxies selected from the DEEP2 Galaxy Survey. By modelling infrared and optical photometry, we derive stellar masses…