Related papers: Where is Population II?
This is a summary of my lectures during the 2011 IAC Winter School in Puerto de la Cruz. I give an introduction to the field of stellar populations in galaxies, and highlight some new results. Since the title of the Winter School was {\it…
We briefly review the motivations for studying the formation of the first ``Population III'' stars and present recent results from our numerical simulations in this area. We discuss the new questions raised as a result of the simulations…
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…
The presence or absence of star clusters in galaxies, and the properties of star cluster populations compared to their host galaxy properties, are important observables for validating models of cluster formation, galaxy formation, and…
Determining the properties of old stellar populations (those with age >1 Gyr) has long involved the comparison of their integrated light, either in the form of photometry or spectroscopic indexes, with empirical or synthetic templates. Here…
The age and chemical composition of the stars in present-day galaxies carry important clues about their star formation processes. The latest generation of population synthesis models have allowed to derive age and stellar metallicity…
Comparison with artificial galaxy models is essential for translating the incomplete and low signal-to-noise data we can obtain on astrophysical stellar populations to physical interpretations which describe their composition, physical…
An increasing number of photometric observations of multiple stellar populations in Galactic globular clusters is seriously challenging the paradigm of GCs hosting single, simple stellar populations. These multiple populations manifest…
The SAURON project will deliver two-dimensional spectroscopic data of a sample of nearby early-type galaxies with unprecedented quality. In this paper, we focus on the mapping of their stellar populations using the SAURON data, and present…
Stellar populations carry information about the formation of galaxies and their evolution up to the present epoch. A wealth of observational data are available nowadays, which are analysed with stellar population models in order to obtain…
The evolution of AGB stars is notoriously complex. The confrontation of AGB population models with observed stellar populations is a useful alternative to the detailed study of individual stars in efforts to converge towards a reliable…
We present a detailed spatial analysis of stellar populations based on long-slit optical spectra in a sample of eight luminous early-type galaxies selected from nearby sparse groups and pairs, three of them may be interacting with a galaxy…
Apparently similar but multifaceted photometric systems are currently being used to investigate the multiple stellar populations in globular clusters, without the concrete general agreement on the definition of the multiple populations. In…
This paper is aimed at emphasizing some of the main hints, constraints and difficulties we currently have in trying to understand how globular clusters formed, along with their multiple stellar generations, an issue that must be regarded as…
The influence of both major and minor mergers is expected to significantly affect gradients of stellar ages and metallicities in the outskirts of galaxies. Measurements of observed gradients are beginning to reach large radii in galaxies,…
Over the past ten years, there has been a revolution in our understanding of massive young stellar clusters in the Galaxy. Initially, there were no known examples having masses $>10^4$, yet we now know that there are at least a half dozen…
We have developed an analytical method to investigate the stellar populations in a galaxy using the broad-band colours. The method enables us to determine the relative contribution, spatial distribution and age for different stellar…
We show observations obtained with the integral field spectrometer OASIS for the central regions of a sample of barred galaxies. The high spatial resolution of the instrument allows to distinguish various structures within these regions as…
Stellar population synthesis models are an essential tool with which galaxy physical parameters are extracted from observations. However they are built on assumptions designed for use in the local Universe, and not always appropriate to…
Galaxy comoving number density is commonly used to forge progenitor/descendant links between observed galaxy populations at different epochs. However, this method breaks down in the presence of galaxy mergers, or when galaxies experience…