Related papers: Challenges in Stellar Population Studies
Galactic globular clusters are old, dense star systems typically containing 10\super{4}--10\super{7} stars. As an old population of stars, globular clusters contain many collapsed and degenerate objects. As a dense population of stars,…
Constraining the star formation histories (SFHs) of individual galaxies is crucial to understanding the mechanisms that regulate their evolution. Here, we combine multi-wavelength (ultraviolet, optical, and infrared) measurements of a very…
Different stellar populations may be identified through differences in chemical, kinematic, and chronological properties, suggesting the interplay of various physical mechanisms that led to their origin and subsequent evolution. As such,…
The Thesis is an attempt to combine data from three previously independent areas - the structure and kinematics of stellar populations of the Galaxy, photometric and dynamical models of galaxies, and models of the dynamical and physical…
Massive stars play a major role in the evolution of their host galaxies, and serve as important probes of the distant Universe. It has been established that the majority of massive stars reside in close binaries and will interact with their…
Star clusters are ideal tracers of star formation activity in systems outside the volume that can be studied using individual, resolved stars. These unresolved clusters span orders of magnitude in brightness and mass, and their formation is…
We are coming to believe that stellar populations in globular clusters are not as simple as they were once thought to be. A growing amount of photometric and spectroscopic evidence shows that globular clusters host at least two different…
Blue straggler stars present as secure members in the Galactic open clusters form a major challenge to the conventional picture of evolutionary population synthesis based on the stellar evolution theory of single stars, as illustrated in…
The characteristics and properties of the stellar populations and evolutionary histories of Local Group galaxies are summarized and compared to predictions of cosmological models. No clear signature of the re-ionization epoch is observed;…
Surveys of pulsating stars in the inner Galaxy have been very limited, but recent large-scale surveys are rapidly bringing us new samples of various kinds of variable stars and new insights into stellar populations therein. Because of the…
The bulk of the present-day stellar mass was formed in galaxies when the universe was less than half its current age (i.e., $1 \lesssim z \lesssim 3$). While this likely marks one of the most critical time periods for galaxy evolution, we…
This review aims to give a summary of our understanding of galaxy evolution as infered from studies of nearby galaxies; how observations made with the Hubble Space Telescope have contributed significantly to our detailed understanding of…
The connection between AGB evolution of stellar populations and infrared vs. ultraviolet properties of the parent galaxies is reviewed relying on the updated lookout provided by population-synthesis theory. In particular, planetary-nebula…
Colours of spiral galaxies generally are affected by the underlying old stellar population, younger stars, and extinction by dust. Old and young populations generally can be disentangled using a combination of blue and near-infrared…
In spite of significant recent and ongoing research efforts, most of the early evolution and long-term fate of young massive star clusters remain clouded in uncertainties. Here, I discuss our understanding of the initial conditions of star…
Binary population synthesis is the method by which predictions of varied observables of stellar populations can be made from theoretical models of binary stellar evolution. Binary stars have many more possible evolutionary outcomes compared…
All measurements of cosmic star formation must assume an initial distribution of stellar masses -- the stellar initial mass function -- in order to extrapolate from the star-formation rate measured for typically rare, massive stars (> 8…
The Binary Population and Spectral Synthesis (BPASS) suite of binary stellar evolution models and synthetic stellar populations provides a framework for the physically motivated analysis of both the integrated light from distant stellar…
In this review I highlight the role played by spectrophotometric models in the study of galaxy evolution in distant clusters. I summarize the main achievements of the modeling of k+a spectra, the derivation of the star formation rate in…
Stellar population and stellar kinematic studies provide unique but complementary insights into how galaxies build-up their stellar mass and angular momentum. A galaxy's mean stellar age reveals when stars were formed, but provides little…