Related papers: Interpreting Galaxy Properties with Improved Model…
The combination of huge databases of galaxy spectra and advances in evolutionary synthesis models in the past few years has renewed interest in an old question: How to estimate the star formation history of a galaxy out of its integrated…
There has been remarkable progress recently in both observational and theoretical studies of galaxy formation and evolution. Largely due to a combination of deep Hubble Space Telescope imaging, Keck spectroscopy, and COBE far-IR background…
The young star clusters we observe today are the building blocks of a new generation of stars and planets in our Galaxy and beyond. Despite their fundamental role we still lack knowledge about the conditions under which star clusters form…
We consider some aspects of the evolution of massive stars which can only be elucidated by means of "indirect" observations, i.e. measurements of the effects of massive stars on their environments. We discuss in detail the early evolution…
We compare predictions of a number of empirical models and numerical simulations of galaxy formation to the conditional stellar mass functions (CSMF)of galaxies in groups of different masses obtained recently by Lan et al. to test how well…
The formation of massive stars is an outstanding problem in stellar evolution. However, it is expected that they are (predominantly) born in heirarchical environments within massive young clusters, which in turn are located within larger…
Massive stars play a major role not only in stellar evolution but also galactic evolution theory. This is because of their dynamical interaction with binary companions, and because their strong winds and explosive deaths as supernovae…
Understanding the galaxy in which we live is one of the great intellectual challenges facing modern science. With the advent of high quality observational data, the chemical evolution modeling of our galaxy has been the subject of numerous…
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 last 20 years have seen an explosion in our understanding of the large-scale distribution and motions of galaxies in the nearby universe. The field has moved from a largely qualitative, morphological description of the structures seen…
Since the early 1970s, stellar population modelling has been one of the basic tools for understanding the physics of unresolved systems from observation of their integrated light. Models allow us to relate the integrated spectra (or…
After a polemical introduction about the proper activity of an astrophysicist facing a dominant theoretical model and many Tb of highly informative data, I review a few recent results on the properties of galaxies in the nearby (redshift…
Recent observations by the James Webb Space Telescope have revealed massive galaxies at very high redshift ($z\simeq 7-15$). The question of whether the existence of such galaxies is expected in the corresponding JWST surveys has received a…
Recent advances in stellar population modelling and avalanches of data from mega-surveys have revived the interest in techniques to extract information about galaxy evolution from integrated spectra. This contribution provides an informal…
Star-formation and the Starburst phenomenon are presented with respect to a number of nearby star-forming galaxies where our understanding of the process can be calibrated. Methods of estimating star-formation rates are discussed together…
The epoch of galaxy assembly from 2<=z<=4 marks a critical stage during the evolution of today's galaxy population. During this period the star-formation activity in the Universe was at its peak level, and the structural patterns observed…
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…
We test how well available stellar population models can reproduce observed u,g,r,i,z-band photometry of the local galaxy population (0.02<=z<=0.03) as probed by the SDSS. Our study is conducted from the perspective of a user of the models,…
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…
In this last decade, our knowledge of evolutionary and structural properties of stars of different mass and chemical composition has significantly improved. This notwithstanding, updated stellar models are still affected by significant and,…