Related papers: The Light Elements Be and B as Stellar Chronometer…
The fragile light elements lithium, beryllium, and boron are easily destroyed in stellar interiors, and are thus superb probes of physical processes occuring in the outer stellar layers. The light elements are also excellent tracers of the…
The various modes of spallative LiBeB production are summarized, and classified according to their dependence or independence on the abundance of medium heavy elements (CNO) illustrated by that of oxygen in the interstellar medium. The…
The earliest phases of the chemical evolution of our Galaxy are analysed in the light of the recent VLT results (concerning abundance patterns in the most metal-poor stars of the Galactic halo) and of stellar nucleosynthesis calculations.…
We compare abundances patterns in the Bulge for elements observed in stars and in planetary nebulae. Some alpha elements, like Mg and Ti, are overabundant respect to Fe, and others are not, like He, O, Si, S, Ar, Ca. The first ones favor a…
The time-delay model is the way we interpret the diagram [X/Fe] vs. [Fe/H], where X is the abundance of a generic element from carbon to uranium. This interpretation is based on the lifetimes of stars of different masses producing different…
Carbon and oxygen abundances in F and G main-sequence stars ranging in metallicity from [Fe/H] = -1.6 to +0.5 are determined from a non-LTE analysis of CI and OI atomic lines in high-resolution spectra. Both C and O are good tracers of…
We present chemical abundances in K and M red-giant members of the Galactic bulge derived from high-resolution infrared spectra obtained with the Phoenix spectrograph on Gemini-South. The elements studied are carbon, nitrogen, oxygen,…
We measured $^{35}$Cl abundances in 52 M giants with metallicities between -0.5 $<$ [Fe/H] $<$ 0.12. Abundances and atmospheric parameters were derived using infrared spectra from CSHELL on the IRTF and from optical echelle spectra. We…
Using data from the GALAH survey, we explore the dependence of elemental abundances on stellar age and metallicity among Galactic disc stars. We find that the abundance of most elements can be predicted from age and [Fe/H] with an intrinsic…
Observations of the stellar content of the Milky Way's bulge helps to understand the stellar content and evolution of distant galaxies. In this brief overview I will first highlight some recent work directed towards measuring the history of…
The early Universe had a chemical composition consisting of hydrogen, helium and traces of lithium1, almost all other elements were created in stars and supernovae. The mass fraction, Z, of elements more massive than helium, is called…
Abundance observations indicate the presence of rapid-neutron capture (i.e., r-process) elements in old Galactic halo and globular cluster stars. These observations provide insight into the nature of the earliest generations of stars in the…
We present preliminary results of stellar structure and nucleosynthesis calculations for some early stars. The study (still in progress) seeks to explore the expected chemical signatures of second generation low- and intermediate-mass stars…
According to the current cosmological cold dark matter paradigm, the Galactic halo could have been the result of the assemblage of smaller structures. Here we explore the hypothesis that the classical and ultra-faint dwarf spheroidal…
Observations of metal-poor Galactic halo stars indicate that the abundance pattern of the (heaviest) neutron-capture elements is consistent with the scaled solar system r-process abundances. Utilizing the radioactive (r-process) element…
Abundances of beryllium in metal-poor stars scale linearly with metallicity down to [Fe/H] ~ -3.0. In the stars where Be has been detected at this extremely metal-poor regime, an increased abundance scatter has been previously reported.…
The compositions of stars are a critical diagnostic tool for many topics in astronomy such as the evolution of our Galaxy, the formation of planets, and the uniqueness of the Sun. Previous spectroscopic measurements indicate a large…
We investigate energetic type Ic supernovae as production sites for Li6 and Be in the early stages of the Milky Way. Recent observations have revealed that some very metal-poor stars with [Fe/H]<-2.5 possess unexpectedly high abundances of…
The expansion history of the Universe can be constrained in a cosmology-independent way by measuring the differential age evolution of cosmic chronometers. This yields a measurement of the Hubble parameter $H(z)$ as a function of redshift.…
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…