Related papers: Dust and Gas as Seeds for Metal-Poor Star Formatio…
Cosmological numerical simulations of galaxy evolution show that accretion of metal-poor gas from the cosmic web drives the star formation in galaxy disks. Unfortunately, the observational support for this theoretical prediction is still…
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…
We examine the dust-to-gas ratio as a function of metallicity for dwarf galaxies [dwarf irregular galaxies (dIrrs) and blue compact dwarf galaxies (BCDGs)]. Using a one-zone model and adopting the instantaneous recycling approximation, we…
The oldest, most metal-poor stars in the Galactic halo and satellite dwarf galaxies present an opportunity to explore the chemical and physical conditions of the earliest star forming environments in the Universe. We review the fields of…
We have used the Spitzer Space Telescope to study the dust properties of a sample of star-forming dwarf galaxies. The differences in the mid-infrared spectral energy distributions for these galaxies which, in general, are low metallicity…
We investigate the sources and amount of dust in early galaxies. We discuss dust nucleation in stellar atmospheres using published extended atmosphere models, stellar evolution tracks and nucleation conditions and conclude that the (TPAGB)…
Dwarf galaxies are the least massive, most abundant, and most widely distributed type of galaxies. Hence, they are key to testing theories of galaxy and Universe evolution. Dwarf galaxies sufficiently close to have their gas and stellar…
The earliest stars to form in the Universe were the first sources of light, heat and metals after the Big Bang. The products of their evolution will have had a profound impact on subsequent generations of stars. Recent studies of primordial…
The discovery of a low-mass star with such low metallicity as < 4.5x10^{-5} Z_sun reveals the critical role of dust in the formation of extremely metal-poor stars. In this paper we explore the effect of the growth of dust grains through…
This article gives an overview of the constitution, physical conditions and observables of dust in the interstellar medium of nearby galaxies. We first review the macroscopic, spatial distribution of dust in these objects, and its…
Interstellar dust is a key physical ingredient of galaxies, obscuring star formation, regulating the heating and cooling of the gas, and building-up chemical complexity. In this manuscript, I give a wide review of interstellar dust…
The abundance patterns of metal-poor stars provide us a wealth of chemical information about various stages of the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. In particular, these stars allow us to study the formation and evolution of the elements…
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…
I review observational studies of the large-scale star formation process in nearby galaxies. A wealth of new multi-wavelength data provide an unprecedented view on the interplay of the interstellar medium and (young) stellar populations on…
Properties of nearby dwarf galaxies are briefly discussed. Dwarf galaxies vary widely in their star formation histories, the ages of their subpopulations, and in their enrichment history. Furthermore, many dwarf galaxies show evidence for…
We combine samples of nearby galaxies with Herschel photometry selected on their dust, metal, HI, and stellar mass content, and compare these to chemical evolution models in order to discriminate between different dust sources. In a…
During the early stages of galaxy evolution, the metallicity is generally low and nearby metal-poor star-forming galaxies may provide templates for primordial star formation. In particular, the dust content of such objects is of great…
Presence of dust in galaxies removes half or more of the stellar energy from the UV-optical budget of the Universe and has profound impact on our understanding of how galaxies evolve. Measures of opacity in local galaxies are reviewed…
Star forming dwarf galaxies (SFDGs) have a high gas content and low metallicities, reminiscent of the basic entities in hierarchical galaxy formation scenarios. In the young universe they probably also played a major role in the cosmic…