Related papers: Cosmic Radioactivity and Galactic Chemical Evoluti…
In the late nineteenth century, Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity and thus the physics of weak interactions, well before atomic and quantum physics was known. The different types of radioactive decay, alpha, beta, and gamma…
Radioactivity was discovered as a by-product of searching for elements with suitable chemical properties. Understanding its characteristics led to the development of nuclear physics, understanding that unstable configurations of nucleons…
Since molecules are ubiquitous in space, the study of the 'Molecular Universe' could unfold the mystery of the existing Interstellar medium. Star formation is linked to the chemical evolution processes. Thus, an analysis of the formation of…
We discuss models that astrochemists have developed to study the chemical composition of the interstellar medium. These models aim at computing the evolution of the chemical composition of a mixture of gas and dust under as- trophysical…
The evolution of galactic disks from their early stages is dominated by gasdynamical effects such as gas infall, galactic fountains, and galactic outflows, and further more. The influence of these processes is only understandable in the…
The formalism of the simple model of galactic chemical evolution (GCE) and its main ingredients (stellar properties, initial mass function, star formation rate and gas flows) are presented in this tutorial. It is stressed that GCE is not…
Radioactive decay of unstable atomic nuclei leads to liberation of nuclear binding energy in the forms of gamma-ray photons and secondary particles (electrons, positrons); their energy then energises surrounding matter. Unstable nuclei are…
The Galaxy is in continuous elemental evolution. Since new elements produced by dying stars are delivered to the interstellar medium, the formation of new enerations of stars and planetary systems is influenced by this metal enrichment. We…
I discuss the chemical and spectrophotometric evolution of galaxies over cosmological timescales and present a first attempt to treat both aspects in a chemically consistent way. In our evolutionary synthesis approach, we account for the…
This review provides the necessary background from astrophysics, nuclear, and particle physics to understand the cosmic origin of the chemical elements. It reflects the year 2009 state of the art in this extremely quickly developing…
Chemical abundances provide important clues to the evolution of galaxies. Ionized nebulae are one of the main sources of chemical abundance measurements, especially in external galaxies. Studies of H II regions have shown that the overall…
We present a multi-zone galactic chemical evolution (GCE) model for the Milky Way that takes the most recently updated yields of major nucleosynthesis channels into account. It incorporates physical processes commonly found in previous GCE…
Interstellar dust is a significant component of matter in the galaxies. The dust owns its origin and reprocessing in a wide range of astrophysical environments. In order to understand the origin and evolution of the distinct types of…
The supernovae SN II & Ib/c make major stellar nucleosynthetic contributions to the inventories of the stable nuclides during the chemical evolution of the galaxy. A case study is performed here with the help of recently developed numerical…
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…
This paper presents a review of ideas that interconnect Astrochemistry and Galactic Dynamics. Since these two areas are vast and not recent, each one has already been covered separately by several reviews. After a general historical…
We present an analytic formalism that describes the evolution of the stellar, gas, and metal content of galaxies. It is based on the idea, inspired by hydrodynamic simulations, that galaxies live in a slowly-evolving equilibrium between…
The evolution of the content of heavy elements in galaxies, the relative chemical abundances, their spatial distribution, and how these scale with various galactic properties, provide unique information on the galactic evolutionary…
Chemical evolution of galaxies brings together ideas on stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis with theories of galaxy formation, star formation and galaxy evolution, with all their associated uncertainties. In a new perspective brought…
Stars are fossils that retain the history of their host galaxies. Carbon and heavier elements are created inside stars and are ejected when they die. From the spatial distribution of elements in galaxies, it is therefore possible to…