Related papers: The Local Group: Inventory and History
Context: Stars evolving through the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase provide significant feedback to their host system, in form of both gas enriched in nuclear-burning products and dust formed in their winds, which they eject into the…
A comparison is carried out among the star formation histories of early-type galaxies (ETG) in fossil groups, clusters and low density environments. Although they show similar evolutionary histories, a significant fraction of the fossils…
The nearby galaxies of the Local Group can act as our laboratories in helping to bridge the gap between theory and observations. In this review we will describe the complications of identifying samples of OB stars, yellow and red…
Hubble's view that the Local Group (LG) is "a typical, small group of nebulae which is isolated in the general field" is confirmed by modern data. The total number of certain and probable Group members presently stands at 35. The half- mass…
Through a homogeneous analysis of spectroscopic literature data of red giant stars, we determine the radial metallicity profiles of 30 dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. We explore correlations between the calculated metallicity gradients…
The star formation histories (SFHs) of galactic stellar haloes offer crucial insights into the merger history of the galaxy and the effects of those mergers on their hosts. Such measurements have revealed that while the Milky Way's most…
Recent results on the evolution of Local Group dwarf galaxies obtained from VLT imaging and spectroscopy are briefly reviewed, and prospects for dwarf galaxy research at the VLT are discussed in the light of the current and forthcoming…
The Ks magnitude distribution of asymptotic giant branch stars provides important constraints on the spatial variation of metallicity and mean-age of the stellar population of galaxies. Here, I present results of the investigation of these…
A rich zoo of peculiar objects forms when Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars, undergo interactions in a binary system. For example, Barium (Ba) stars are main-sequence and red-giant stars that accreted mass from the outflows of a former…
We investigate the galaxy populations in seven X-ray selected, intermediate-redshift groups (0.2<z<0.6). Overall, the galaxy populations in these systems are similar to those in clusters at the same redshift; they have large fractions of…
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…
We study the population of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) by means of full evolutionary models of stars of mass 1Msun < M < 8Msun, evolved through the thermally pulsing phase. The models also account…
Although red giants deplete lithium on their surfaces, some giants are Li-rich. Intermediate-mass asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars can generate Li through the Cameron-Fowler conveyor, but the existence of Li-rich, low-mass red giant…
Astrocladistics, a methodology borrowed from biology, is an objective way of understanding galaxy diversity through evolutionary relationships. It is based on the evolution of all the available parameters describing galaxies and thus…
There are three important aspects concerning the study of the red giant and in particular of the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the Magellanic Clouds. These are: the surface distribution, the luminosity function and the variability.…
The large galaxies in the Local Group, while all disk galaxies, have diverse stellar populations. A better understanding of these differences, and a physical understanding of the causes, requires more detailed study of the older…
The evolution of radial gradients of metallicity in disk galaxies and its relation with the disk formation are not well understood. Theoretical models of galactic chemical evolution make contrasting predictions about the time evolution of…
We have traced the spatial distributions of intermediate-age and old stars in nine dwarf galaxies in the distant parts of the Local Group, using multi-epoch 3.6 and 4.5 micron data from the DUST in Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer (DUSTiNGS)…
The formation of stars with light-element abundance variations in globular clusters and the subsequent dynamical evolution of these multiple populations remains an open question. One of the most widely discussed is the AGB scenario, in…
We present uniformly measured star formation histories (SFHs) of 60 nearby (D~4Mpc) dwarf galaxies based on CMDs of resolved stellar populations from images taken with HST as part of the ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury program (ANGST).…