Related papers: Summary Talk
Recent observations demonstrate that the thin and thick disks of the Galaxy have different chemical abundance trends and evolution timescales. The relative abundances of $\alpha$-elements in the thick Galactic disk are increased relative to…
This chapter presents an overview of the recent progress on spectroscopic observations of metal-poor stars with r-process element signatures found in the Milky Way's stellar halo and satellite dwarf galaxies. Major empirical lessons related…
Metals are found in all baryonic phases and environments, and our knowledge of their distribution `in and around galaxies' has significantly improved over the past few years. Theoretical work has shown that the fraction of metals in…
Our knowledge about the dynamics, the chemical abundances and the evolutionary histories of the more luminous dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies is constantly growing. However, very little is known about the enrichment of the ultra-faint…
We review recent observational studies of heavy element abundances in low metallicity stars and explore some implications of these results for nucleosynthesis and early Galactic chemical evolution.
In this paper we present a new chemical evolution model for the Galaxy which assumes two main infall episodes for the formation of halo-thick disk and thin disk, respectively. We do not try to take into account explicitly the evolution of…
Correlations between stellar kinematics and chemical abundances are fossil evidence for evolutionary connections between Galactic structural components. Extensive stellar surveys show that the only tolerably clear distinction between…
We present first results from a program to measure the chemical abundances of a large (N>30) sample of thick disk stars with the principal goal of investigating the formation history of the Galactic thick disk. Our analysis confirms…
From a detailed elemental abundance analysis of 102 F and G dwarf stars we present abundance trends in the Galactic thin and thick disks for 14 elements (O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni, Zn, Y, Ba, and Eu). Stellar parameters and…
New information on the relations between the Galactic disks, the halo, and satellite galaxies is being obtained from elemental abundances of stars having metallicities in the range -1.5 < [Fe/H] < -0.5. The first results for a sample of 26…
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…
Studies of elemental abundances in stars belonging to the thin and the thick disk of our Galaxy are reviewed. Edvardsson et al. (1993) found strong evidence of [alpha/Fe] variations among F and G main sequence stars with the same [Fe/H] and…
I discuss three different topics in Galactic chemical evolution:the "puzzling" absence of any observational signature of secondary elements ; the building of the Galactic halo in the framework of hierarchical galaxy formation, as evidenced…
The star formation history of a galaxy, explicitely here our Milky Way Galaxy, where the most detailed information is attainable, is the convolution of two functions. One function describes the rate of formation of the stars which are today…
Metals -- heavy elements synthesized during various phases of stellar evolution or during supernova explosions -- play a fundamental role in shaping galaxy evolution. In fact, their relative abundances, spatial distribution, and scaling…
Our knowledge about the chemical evolution of the more luminous dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxies is constantly growing. However, little is known about the enrichment of the ultrafaint systems recently discovered in large numbers in large…
Our Galaxy is thought to have undergone an active evolutionary history dominated by star formation, the accretion of cold gas, and, in particular, mergers up to 10 gigayear ago. The stellar halo reveals rich fossil evidence of these…
I discuss how the chemical abundance distributions, kinematics and age distributions of stars in the thin and thick disks of the Galaxy can be used to decipher the merger history of the Milky Way, a typical large galaxy. The observational…
This contribution presents an overview of the evolution of Li abundances in stars of the Galactic thin and thick discs, from the observational point of view. The focus is on Li abundances obtained by recent projects and surveys. To separate…
A new view on our Galaxy has recently emerged, with large consequences on its formation scenarios. Not only new dwarf satellites have been detected, still orbiting and tidally disrupting, but also a multitude of stellar streams or tidal…