Related papers: Stellar Archaeology: New Science with Old Stars
Half a century has passed since the foundation of nuclear astrophysics. Since then, this discipline has reached its maturity. Today, nuclear astrophysics constitutes a multidisciplinary crucible of knowledge that combines the achievements…
Stars and planets are the fundamental objects of the Universe. Their formation processes, though related, may differ in important ways. Stars almost certainly form from gravitational collapse and probably have formed this way since the…
Quasars are powerful systems whose spectrum is rich of metal features that allow us to investigate the chemical evolution of galaxies at very high redshift, even close to the reionization epoch. I review the main observational constraints…
Extensive spectroscopic studies of stars with and without planets have concluded that stars hosting planets are significantly more metal-rich than those without planets. More subtle trends of different chemical elements begin to appear as…
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 demonstrate that dark matter interactions can profoundly influence stellar nucleosynthesis in the early universe by altering thermodynamic gradients and modifying nuclear reaction rates within primordial stars. Incorporating a dark…
Understanding the origin of the elements has been a decades long pursuit, with many open questions still remaining. Old stars found in the Milky Way and its dwarf satellite galaxies can provide answers because they preserve clean elemental…
Early-type dwarfs (ETDs) are the end points of the evolution of low-mass galaxies whose gas supply has been extinguished. The cessation of star-formation lays bare the ancient stellar populations. A wealth of information is stored in the…
The discovery of large numbers of young low-mass stars and brown dwarfs over the last decade has made it possible to investigate star formation and early evolution in a previously unexplored mass regime. In this review, we begin by…
Metallicity is one of the crucial factors that determine stellar evolution. To characterize the properties of stellar populations one needs to know the fraction of stars forming at different metallicities. Knowing how this fraction evolves…
A brief review concludes that there is now good overall agreement between theoretical estimates of the energy associated with the production of the observed metal content of the Universe and the observed extragalactic background light. In…
If we are to develop a comprehensive and predictive theory of galaxy formation and evolution, it is essential that we obtain an accurate assessment of how and when galaxies assemble their stellar populations, and how this assembly varies…
The determination of chemical abundances in star-forming galaxies and the study of their evolution on cosmological timescales are powerful tools for understanding galaxy formation and evolution. This contribution presents the latest results…
The embedded phase of star formation is the crucial phase where most of the stellar mass is assembled. Velocity-resolved spectra reveal an infalling envelope, bipolar outflows, and perhaps an infant circumstellar disk -- all locked together…
This paper presents theoretical star formation and chemical enrichment histories for the stellar halo of the Milky Way based on new chemodynamical modeling. The goal of this study is to assess the extent to which metal-poor stars in the…
It has now become recognised that damped Lyman alpha systems play an important role in helping us unravel the origin of chemical elements. In this presentation, we describe the main results of a recently completed survey of the most…
Neutron-capture elements in low metallicity Galactic halo stars vary widely both in overall contents and detailed abundance patterns. This review discusses recent observational results on the n-capture elements, discussing the implications…
The study of chemical abundances in stars with planets is an important ingredient for the models of formation and evolution of planetary systems. In order to determine accurate abundances, it is crucial to have a reliable set of atmospheric…
Some aspects of the chemical evolution of late-type dwarf galaxies are reviewed, together with their implications on three issues of cosmological relevance: similarity to primeval galaxies, derivation of the primordial helium abundance,…
The search for the first stars formed from metal-free gas in the universe is one of the key issues in astronomy because it relates to many fields, such as the formation of stars and galaxies, the evolution of the universe, and the origin of…