Related papers: Element Abundances through the Cosmic Ages
(Abridged) In these lectures aimed for non-specialists, I review progress in understanding how galaxies form and evolve. Both the star formation history and assembly of stellar mass can be empirically traced from redshifts z~6 to the…
The enrichment of the intergalactic medium with heavy elements is a process that lies at the nexus of poorly-understood aspects of physical cosmology. We review current understanding of the processes that may remove metals from galaxies,…
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 elemental abundances and stellar population ages for 68 massive quiescent galaxies at $0.59\leq z\leq0.75$ from the LEGA-C survey. The abundance patterns and ages, derived from full-spectrum modeling, are examined as a function…
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…
Elemental and isotopic abundances are the fossils of galactic archaeology. The observed [X/Fe]-[Fe/H] relations in the Galactic bulge and disk and the mass-metallicity relation of galaxies are roughly reproduced with chemodynamical…
The chemical abundance patterns of gas and stars in galaxies are powerful probes of galaxies' star formation histories and the astrophysics of galaxy assembly but are challenging to measure with confidence in distant galaxies. In this…
The intergalactic medium - the cosmic gas that fills the great spaces between the galaxies - is affected by processes ranging from quantum fluctuations in the very early universe to radiative emission from newly-formed stars. This gives the…
An element's astrophysical origin should be reflected in the spatial distribution of its abundance, yielding measurably different spatial distributions for elements with different nucleosynthetic sites. However, most extragalactic…
Understanding the origins and distribution of matter in the Universe is one of the most important quests in physics and astronomy. Themes range from astro-particle physics to chemical evolution in the Galaxy to cosmic nucleosynthesis and…
Neutral hydrogen clouds with high column density detected towards distant quasars are unique probes of elemental nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution in the low metallicity regime. They provide measurements for several elements at very…
Revolutionary advances in both theory and technology have launched cosmology into its most exciting period of discovery yet. Unanticipated components of the universe have been identified, promising ideas for understanding the basic features…
Since stellar populations enhance particular element abundances according to the yields and lifetimes of the stellar progenitors, the chemical evolution of galaxies serves as one of the key tools that allows the tracing of galaxy evolution.…
In the distant past, astronomy was often intertwined with religion into a unified cosmos. As science became a distinct cultural enterprise, astronomy has witnessed a variety of rich interactions with other fields. Mathematical statistics…
In the present universe, the gas is a minor component of giant galaxies, and its dominant phase is atomic (HI). During galaxy evolution in cosmic times, models predict that gas fractions were much higher in galaxies, and gas phases could be…
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…
In these lectures I review observations of star-forming molecular clouds in our Galaxy and nearby galaxies to develop a physical intuition for understanding star formation in the local and high-redshift Universe. A lot of this material is…
Star-forming regions show a rich and varied chemistry, including the presence of complex organic molecules - both in the cold gas distributed on large scales, and in the hot regions close to young stars where protoplanetary disks arise.…
A representative sample of unevolved early B-type stars in nearby OB associations and the field is analysed to unprecedented precision using NLTE techniques. The resulting chemical composition is found to be more metal-rich and much more…
Element abundances in high-redshift quasar absorbers offer excellent probes of the chemical enrichment of distant galaxies, and can constrain models for population III and early population II stars. Recent observations indicate that the…