Related papers: Confidence limits of evolutionary synthesis models…
For a number of reasons, the properties of integrated stellar populations are distributed. Traditional synthesis models usually return the mean value of such distribution, and a perfect fitting to observational data is sought for to infer…
The fundamental properties of stellar clusters, such as the age or the total initial mass in stars, are often inferred from population synthesis models. The predicted properties are then used to constrain the physical mechanisms involved in…
Since the early 1970s, stellar population modelling has been one of the basic tools for understanding the physics of unresolved systems from observation of their integrated light. Models allow us to relate the integrated spectra (or…
In this paper, I review to what extent we can understand the photometric properties of star clusters, and of low-mass, unresolved galaxies, in terms of population synthesis models designed to describe `simple stellar populations' (SSPs),…
We present a new set of stellar interior and synthesis models for predicting the integrated emission from stellar populations in star clusters and galaxies of arbitrary age and metallicity. This work differs from existing spectral synthesis…
We present a probabilistic formulation of the classical problem of synthesizing spectral properties of a galaxy using a base of star clusters. The problem consists of estimating the population vector x, composed by the contributions of…
Stellar population synthesis can be approached as an inverse problem. The physical information is extracted from the observations through an inverse model. The process requires the transformation of the observational errors into model…
Combining population synthesis models with simple Montecarlo simulations of stochastic effects in the number of stars occupying sparsely populated stellar evolutionary phases in the HRD, I show that the scatter observed in the photometric…
The probabilistic nature of the IMF in stellar systems implies that clusters of the same mass and age do not present the same unique values of their observed parameters. Instead they follow a distribution. We address the study of such…
Comparison with artificial galaxy models is essential for translating the incomplete and low signal-to-noise data we can obtain on astrophysical stellar populations to physical interpretations which describe their composition, physical…
In terms of statistical fluctuations, stellar population synthesis models are only asymptotically correct in the limit of a large number of stars, where sampling errors become asymptotically small. When dealing with stellar clusters,…
The basic assumptions behind Population Synthesis and Spectral Evolution models are reviewed. The numerical problems encountered by the standard population synthesis technique when applied to models with truncated star formation rates are…
In this review we address the uncertainties implicit in evolutionary synthesis model computations. After describing the general structure of synthesis codes, we discuss several source of uncertainties that may affect their results. In…
The physical properties of galaxies are encoded within their spectral energy distribution and require comparison with models to be extracted. These models must contain a synthetic stellar population and, where infrared data is to be used,…
The stellar masses, mean ages, metallicities, and star formation histories of galaxies are now commonly estimated via stellar population synthesis (SPS) techniques. SPS relies on stellar evolution calculations from the main sequence to…
Determining the properties of old stellar populations (those with age >1 Gyr) has long involved the comparison of their integrated light, either in the form of photometry or spectroscopic indexes, with empirical or synthetic templates. Here…
Over the last decades, evolutionary population synthesis models have powered an unmatched leap forward in our understanding of galaxies. From dating the age of the first galaxies in the Universe to detailed measurements of the chemical…
Models of population synthesis for the Galaxy have been developed in order to understand galactic structure and evolution. They allow to test scenarii of evolution by comparisons between model predictions and observed distributions.…
Optimised population synthesis provides an empirical method to extract the relative mix of stellar evolutionary stages and the distribution of atmospheric parameters within unresolved stellar systems, yet a robust validation of this method…
Many aspects of the evolution of stars, and in particular the evolution of binary stars, remain beyond our ability to model them in detail. Instead, we rely on observations to guide our often phenomenological models and pin down uncertain…