Related papers: Spectral libraries and their uncertainties
Evolved stars dominate galactic spectra, enrich the galactic medium, expand to change their planetary systems, eject winds of a complex nature, produce spectacular nebulae and illuminate them, and transfer material between binary…
The simple physics of microlensing provides a well-understood tool with which to probe the atmospheres of distant stars in the Galaxy and Local Group with high magnification and resolution. Recent results in measuring stellar surface…
In this last decade, our knowledge of evolutionary and structural properties of stars of different mass and chemical composition is significantly improved. This result has been achieved as a consequence of our improved capability in…
Star clusters are fundamental units of stellar feedback and unique tracers of their host galactic properties. In this review, we will first focus on their constituents, i.e.\ detailed insight into their stellar populations and their…
High-precision spectroscopy of large stellar samples plays a crucial role for several topical issues in astrophysics. Examples include studying the chemical structure and evolution of the Milky Way galaxy, tracing the origin of chemical…
In this chapter I give an overall description of the structure and evolution of stars of different masses, and review the main ingredients included in state-of-the-art calculations aiming at reproducing observational features. I give…
I report on some recent results in the framework of a complex project aimed to characterize the photometric properties of stellar populations in Galactic Globular Clusters.
In this work we focus on the determination of the relative distributions of young, intermediate-age and old populations of stars in galaxies. Starting from a grid of theoretical population synthesis models we constructed a set of model…
Long-baseline interferometry at optical and near-infrared wavelengths is an emerging technology which is quickly becoming a useful tool to investigate stellar atmospheres and to compare observations with models. Stellar atmosphere models…
Beginning with a historical account of the spectral classification, its refinement through additional criteria is presented. The line strengths and ratios used in two dimensional classifications of each spectral class are described. A…
The understanding and modeling of the structure and evolution of stars is based on statistical physics as well as on hydrodynamics. Today, a precise identification and proper description of the physical processes at work in stellar…
An important goal of helio- and asteroseismology is to improve the modelling of stellar evolution. Here I provide a brief discussion of some of the uncertain issues in stellar modelling, of possible relevance to asteroseismic inferences.
Models of stellar spectra are necessary for interpreting light from individual stars, planets, integrated stellar populations, nebulae, and the interstellar medium. We provide a comprehensive and homogeneous collection of synthetic spectra…
Planetary nebulae (PNe) are valuable spatial and kinematic tracers of nearby galaxies. In this mini-review, I focus on their role in tracing the halo and intra-cluster/intra-group light assembly in groups and clusters of galaxies within…
Physical properties of stars such as luminosity, surface temperature, distance, or mass are measured from observations. These physical properties are of paramount importance to understand how stars are born, live, and die in the universe…
Around the turn of the last century, star clusters of all kinds were considered "simple" stellar populations. Over the past decade, this situation has changed dramatically. At the same time, star clusters are among the brightest stellar…
One of the challenges for stellar astrophysics is to reach the point at which we can undertake reliable spectral synthesis of unresolved populations in young, star-forming galaxies at high redshift. Here I summarise recent studies of…
Knowledge of the binary population in stellar groupings provides important information about the outcome of the star forming process in different environments. Binarity is also a key ingredient in stellar population studies and is a…
Astronomical polarimetry is a powerful technique that can provide physical information sometimes difficult or impossible to obtain by any other type of observation. Almost every class of binary star can benefit from polarimetric…
Stellar population studies in the infrared (IR) wavelength range have two main advantages with respect to the optical regime: they probe different populations, because most of the light in the IR comes from redder and generally older stars,…