Related papers: The lambda Bootis phenomenon: interaction between …
Recent works have demonstrated a surprisingly small variation of the dust-to-metals ratio in different environments and a correlation between dust extinction and the density of stars. Naively, one would interpret these findings as strong…
We examine the large sample of lambda Boo candidates collected in Table 1 of Gerbaldi et al. (2003) to see how many of them show composite spectra. Of the 132 lambda Boo candidates we identify 22 which definitely show composite spectra and…
The interplay between the ISM and the massive stars formed in clusters and, more generally, in recent events of star formation is reviewed via the global effects each has on the other. The pre-existing environment affects the properties of…
We present a comprehensive survey of boron abundances in diffuse interstellar clouds from observations made with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) of the Hubble Space Telescope. Our sample of 56 Galactic sight lines is the…
The earliest phases of star formation are characterised by intense mass accretion from the circumstellar disk to the central star. One group of young stellar objects, the FU Orionis-type stars exhibit accretion rate peaks accompanied by…
(abridged) The case can be made for a rather universal stellar IMF form that can be approximated by a two-part power-law function in the stellar regime. However, there exists a possible hint for a systematic variation with metallicity. A…
We present different chemical evolution models for the ultrafaint dwarf galaxy Bootes I. We either assume that the galaxy accretes its mass through smooth infall of gas of primordial chemical composition (classical models) or adopt mass…
Our goal is to find new candidate lambda Boo stars that belong to binary systems. A detailed abundance determination of some candidates could confirm their true lambda Boo nature, while the composition of eventual late-type companions could…
We have studied the chemical enrichment history of the interstellar medium through an analysis of the n-dimensional stellar abundances space. This work is a non-parametric analysis of the stellar chemical abundance space. The main goal is…
Galactic globular cluster stars exhibit abundance patterns which are not shared by their field counterparts. It is clear from recent spectroscopic observations of GC turnoff stars that these abundance anomalies were already present in the…
In the attempt to shed new light on the lambda Boo phenomenon we analyzed the astrometric, photometric and spectroscopic characteristics of stars out of a list of recently selected lambda Boo candidates. We show that the class is still…
Current measurements indicate that the deuterium abundance in diffuse interstellar gas varies spatially by a factor of ~4 among sightlines extending beyond the Local Bubble. One plausible explanation for the scatter is the variable…
This is a brief overview of the elemental abundance patterns that have been observed in the different Galactic stellar populations. Main focus is on studies that are based on high-resolution spectra of dwarf and subgiant stars, and in some…
Optical/near-IR broadband photometry of the halos of blue compact galaxies (BCGs) have revealed a very red spectral energy distribution, which cannot easily be reconciled with any normal, metal-poor stellar population. Here, three possible…
The prediction of the PLANCK-constrained primordial lithium abundance in the Universe is in discordance with the observed Li abundances in warm Population II dwarf and subgiant stars. Among the physically best motivated ideas, it has been…
After its formation, a young star spends some time traversing the molecular cloud complex in which it was born. It is therefore not unlikely that, well after the initial cloud collapse event which produced the star, it will encounter one or…
We study the behavior of eight diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) in different interstellar environments, as characterized by the fraction of hydrogen in molecular form [$f$(H$_2$)], with comparisons to the corresponding behavior of various…
What might be the most appropriate set of interstellar reference abundances of chemical elements (both in gas and in dust) relative to hydrogen has been a subject of much discussion in the past decade. While historically the Sun has been…
Supersonic turbulence is an essential element in understanding how structure within interstellar gas is created and shaped. In the context of star formation, many computational studies show that the mass spectrum of density and velocity…
It is surprising to find dust around B type stars, as in the case of B[e] stars. These stars exhibit a dense, dusty environment witnessed by their infrared-excess and many emission lines from permitted and forbidden transitions. Given the…