Related papers: Chemical Elements at High and Low Redshifts
The chemical composition of high-redshift galaxies is an important property that gives clues to their past history and future evolution. Measuring abundances in distant galaxies with current techniques is often a challenge, and the…
A galaxy's metallicity provides a record of star formation, gas accretion, and gas outflow, and is therefore one of the most informative measurements that can be made at high redshift. It is also one of the most difficult. I review methods…
The horizon for studies of element abundances has expanded dramatically in the last ten years. Once the domain of astronomers concerned chiefly with stars and nearby galaxies, this field has now become a key component of observational…
I review measurements of element abundances in different components of the high redshift universe, including the Lyman alpha forest, damped Lyman alpha systems, and Lyman break galaxies. Although progress is being made in all three areas,…
Spectroscopic observations of distant cosmological sources continue to exhibit a surprising result; that the chemical abundance of the universe seems to be approximately solar for the observed sources at redshifts of 5, 6, and even 7, even…
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…
I review the observational characteristics of intermediate-to-high redshift star forming galaxies, including their star formation rates, dust extinctions, ISM kinematics, and chemical compositions. I present evidence that the mean rate of…
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…
The enrichment of the intergalactic medium (IGM) with heavy elements provides us with a record of past star formation and with an opportunity to study the interactions between galaxies and their environments. We summarize current data…
Quasar (or QSO) elemental abundances provide unique probes of high-redshift star formation and galaxy evolution. There is growing evidence from both the emission and intrinsic absorption lines that QSO environments have roughly solar or…
Twenty years of high-resolution spectroscopy at the 8-10 m class telescopes have drastically expanded our view of the gas-phase metallicity in the z>2 universe. This contribution briefly summarizes how these studies reveal a widespread…
It has recently become possible to measure directly the abundances of several chemical elements in a variety of environments at redshifts up to z = 5. In this review I summarise the latest observations of Lyman break galaxies, damped Lyman…
We have collected an heterogeneous sample of galaxies at redshifts 0.001<z<3.35 with the aim of exploring the evolution of the physical parameters and of the element abundances calculated by modelling the observed spectra. The evolution…
The determination of chemical abundances in star-forming galaxies and the study of their evolution on cosmological timescales are powerful tools for understanding galaxy formation and evolution. This contribution presents the latest results…
In these lectures I present a highly opinionated review of the observed patterns of metallicity and element abundance ratios in nearby spiral, irregular, and dwarf elliptical galaxies, with connection to a number of astrophysical issues…
Intrinsic emission and absorption lines of QSOs provide several independent probes of the metal abundances in QSO environments. They indicate that the metallicities are typically solar or higher out to redshifts z > 4. These results support…
The epoch of galaxy assembly from 2<=z<=4 marks a critical stage during the evolution of today's galaxy population. During this period the star-formation activity in the Universe was at its peak level, and the structural patterns observed…
Deep surveys in many wavebands have shown that the rate at which stars were forming was at least a factor of 10 higher at z > 1 than today. Heavy elements (metals) are produced by stars, and the star formation history deduced by these…
Magnitude-limited galaxy redshift surveys are now providing large samples of galaxies to beyond z=2, while color-selected and emission-line-selected samples are finding galaxies to z=4.7. A broad picture is emerging of galaxy formation…
Recent stellar chemical abundance measurements of a handful of $z\sim2$ quiescent galaxies have suggested these galaxies exhibit a remarkably strong $\alpha$-enhancement compared to their local and intermediate redshift counterparts. This…