Related papers: Further constraints on white dwarf galactic halos
Evidence supporting the hypothesis of an invariant stellar Initial Mass Function is strong and varied. The intra-cluster medium in rich clusters of galaxies is one of the few contrary locations where recent interpretations of the chemical…
We introduce a stochastic halo formation model to compute the early chemical enrichment of the interstellar medium (ISM) of the halo. Contrary to 1-zone chemical evolution models, we are able to resolve local inhomogeneities in the ISM…
It is well established that the [alpha/Fe] ratios in elliptical galaxies increase with galaxy mass. This relation holds also for early-type dwarf galaxies, although it seems to steepen at low masses. The [alpha/Fe] vs. mass relation can be…
Oppenheimer et al. (2001) have argued recently that at least 2% of the Galactic halo is comprised of white dwarfs If true, this finding has crucial implications for understanding the formation and evolution of the Milky Way. We draw…
Gaseous and stellar metallicities in galaxies are nowadays routinely used to constrain the evolutionary processes in galaxies. This requires the knowledge of the average yield per stellar generation, $y_{\text{Z}}$, i.e. the quantity of…
Within collapsing protogalaxies, thermal instability leads to the formation of a population of cool fragments which are confined by the pressure of a residual hot background medium. The critical mass required for the cold clouds to become…
The iron mass in galaxy clusters is about 6 times larger than could have been produced by core-collapse supernovae (SNe), assuming the stars in the cluster formed with a standard initial mass function (IMF). SNe Ia have been proposed as the…
In this work we explore the effects of adopting initial mass functions (IMFs) variable in time on the chemical evolution of the Galaxy. In order to do that we adopt a chemical evolution model which assumes two main infall episodes for the…
We present new GRIFFIN project hydrodynamical simulations that model the formation of galactic star cluster populations in low-metallicity ($Z=0.00021$) dwarf galaxies, including radiation, supernova and stellar wind feedback of individual…
Here, we present near-infrared spectroscopic observations of 15 helium atmosphere, metal-rich white dwarfs obtained at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. While a connection has been demonstrated between the most highly polluted, hydrogen…
It has been shown recently that the dynamical V-band mass-to-light ratios of compact stellar systems with masses from 10^6 to 10^8 Solar masses are not consistent with the predictions from simple stellar population (SSP) models. Top-heavy…
We propose a statistical method for decomposition of contributions to iron production from various sources: supernovae Type II and the subpopulations of supernovae Type Ia -- prompt (their progenitors are short-lived stars of ages less then…
A stochastic model of the chemical enrichment of metal-poor systems by core-collapse (Type II) supernovae is presented, allowing for large-scale mixing of the enriched material by turbulent motions and cloud collisions in the interstellar…
Some ultra-compact dwarf galaxies have large dynamical mass to light (M/L) ratios and also appear to contain an overabundance of LMXB sources, and some Milky Way globular clusters have a low concentration and appear to have a deficit of…
The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is thought to be bottom-heavy in the cores of the most massive galaxies, with an excess of low mass stars compared to the Milky Way. However, studies of the kinematics of quiescent galaxies at 2<z<5…
There is substantial evidence that the initial mass function (IMF) may be a function of the local star formation conditions. In particular, the IMF is predicted to flatten with increasing local luminosity density, with the formation of…
The nature of the dark matter in the Universe is one of the outstanding questions in astrophysics. In this talk, I address possible stellar baryonic contributions to the 50-90% of our Galaxy that is made of unknown dark matter. First I show…
We re-examine a deep {\it Hubble Space Telescope} pencil-beam search for red dwarfs, stars just massive enough to burn Hydrogen. The authors of this search (Bahcall, Flynn, Gould \& Kirhakos 1994) found that red dwarfs make up less than 6\%…
We study the age and metallicity distribution function (MDF) of metal-poor stars in the Milky Way halo as a function of galactocentric radius by combining N-body simulations and semi-analytical methods. We find that the oldest stars…
The chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge is treated here in the context of an inside-out model for the Galaxy formation. We assume that this central region evolved even faster than the Galactic halo and test the effect of changing the…