scholarly journals Joint Discussion 1: Abundance Ratios in the Oldest Stars

1998 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-48
Author(s):  
Beatriz Barbuy ◽  
Michael S. Bessell

Joint Discussion 1 was supported by Division IV (Stars) and Commission 29 (Stellar Spectra), and co-supported by Commissions 28 (Galaxies), 36 (Theory of Stellar Atmospheres) and 37 (Stellar Clusters and Associations). Members of the scientific organizing committee were: N. Arimoto (Japan), B. Barbuy (Brazil), T. Beers (USA), J. Bergeron (Germany), M. Bessell (Australia), R. Cayrel (France), G. Gilmore (UK), B. Gustafsson (Sweden), F. Matteucci (Italy), P. Nissen (Den-mark), and M. Rich (USA). The inspiration for this meeting was the growing overlap and connections between previously separate areas of astrophysical research, namely, studies of stellar abundances, the bulges of galaxies, the gaseous components of nearby galaxies and the clouds (some of which may be primordial) responsible for the narrow absorption lines in quasars. The signature of the early chemical evolution of our Galaxy is imprinted in the abundance ratios of the oldest stars. We recall that element ratios are determined by a mix of the relative rates of different types of supernovae, the stellar IMF, and the relative histories of star formation rates and gaseous flows, and thus encapsulate much of the history of star formation and ISM evolution in galaxies. Hence, abundance ratios in stars are a primary probe for testing theories of galaxy formation and evolution. We do not know how the Galaxy formed: both the Eggen, Lynden-Bell & Sandage (1962) and the Searle & Zinn (1978) scenarios may be accommodated in the recent proposal of van den Bergh (1993) where the inner Galaxy follows ELS, whereas the outer Galaxy formation conforms to the Searle-Zinn proposition. A combination of abundance ratios, ages derived from colour-magnitude diagrams, and kinematical properties, can give us the required information to trace the past history of our Galaxy. We note here, that although stellar evolution and model atmospheres are not discussed in the proceedings both topics are of fundamental underlying importance. Model atmospheres are used to derive temperatures, colors and bolometric corrections of stars that are used not only in abundance analyses but also in deriving the ages of stars by comparing CM diagrams with HR diagrams. This process is under close scrutiny because of the apparent difference between the ages of the oldest stars and the expansion age of the universe.

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele Cignoni ◽  
Monica Tosi

In this tutorial paper we summarize how the star formation (SF) history of a galactic region can be derived from the colour-magnitude diagram (CMD) of its resolved stars. The procedures to build synthetic CMDs and to exploit them to derive the SF histories (SFHs) are described, as well as the corresponding uncertainties. The SFHs of resolved dwarf galaxies of all morphological types, obtained from the application of the synthetic CMD method, are reviewed and discussed. To summarize: (1) only early-type galaxies show evidence of long interruptions in the SF activity; late-type dwarfs present rather continuous, orgasping, SF regimes; (2) a few early-type dwarfs have experienced only one episode of SF activity concentrated at the earliest epochs, whilst many others show extended or recurrent SF activity; (3) no galaxy experiencing now its first SF episode has been found yet; (4) no frequent evidence of strong SF bursts is found; (5) there is no significant difference in the SFH of dwarf irregulars and blue compact dwarfs, except for the current SF rates. Implications of these results on the galaxy formation scenarios are briefly discussed.


1964 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 37-37
Author(s):  
R. H. Stoy

Information about the past history of the Galaxy may be obtained from a two-colour diagram, since the present distribution of stars in such a diagram depends on the past rate of star formation and the past metal abundances in the interstellar medium. As an illustration of this, I would like to discuss three diagrams that were recently prepared by Dr. M. E. Dixon from Cape photometric data (Dixon 1963a,b).


2020 ◽  
Vol 501 (2) ◽  
pp. 1803-1822
Author(s):  
Seunghwan Lim ◽  
Douglas Scott ◽  
Arif Babul ◽  
David J Barnes ◽  
Scott T Kay ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT As progenitors of the most massive objects, protoclusters are key to tracing the evolution and star formation history of the Universe, and are responsible for ${\gtrsim }\, 20$ per cent of the cosmic star formation at $z\, {\gt }\, 2$. Using a combination of state-of-the-art hydrodynamical simulations and empirical models, we show that current galaxy formation models do not produce enough star formation in protoclusters to match observations. We find that the star formation rates (SFRs) predicted from the models are an order of magnitude lower than what is seen in observations, despite the relatively good agreement found for their mass-accretion histories, specifically that they lie on an evolutionary path to become Coma-like clusters at $z\, {\simeq }\, 0$. Using a well-studied protocluster core at $z\, {=}\, 4.3$ as a test case, we find that star formation efficiency of protocluster galaxies is higher than predicted by the models. We show that a large part of the discrepancy can be attributed to a dependence of SFR on the numerical resolution of the simulations, with a roughly factor of 3 drop in SFR when the spatial resolution decreases by a factor of 4. We also present predictions up to $z\, {\simeq }\, 7$. Compared to lower redshifts, we find that centrals (the most massive member galaxies) are more distinct from the other galaxies, while protocluster galaxies are less distinct from field galaxies. All these results suggest that, as a rare and extreme population at high z, protoclusters can help constrain galaxy formation models tuned to match the average population at $z\, {\simeq }\, 0$.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S359) ◽  
pp. 386-390
Author(s):  
Lucimara P. Martins

AbstractWith the exception of some nearby galaxies, we cannot resolve stars individually. To recover the galaxies star formation history (SFH), the challenge is to extract information from their integrated spectrum. A widely used tool is the full spectral fitting technique. This consists of combining simple stellar populations (SSPs) of different ages and metallicities to match the integrated spectrum. This technique works well for optical spectra, for metallicities near solar and chemical histories not much different from our Galaxy. For everything else there is room for improvement. With telescopes being able to explore further and further away, and beyond the optical, the improvement of this type of tool is crucial. SSPs use as ingredients isochrones, an initial mass function, and a library of stellar spectra. My focus are the stellar libraries, key ingredient for SSPs. Here I talk about the latest developments of stellar libraries, how they influence the SSPs and how to improve them.


Author(s):  
Mauro D’Onofrio ◽  
Paola Marziani ◽  
Cesare Chiosi

We review the properties of the established Scaling Relations (SRs) of galaxies and active galactic nuclei (AGN), focusing on their origin and expected evolution back in time, providing a short history of the most important progresses obtained up to now and discussing the possible future studies. We also try to connect the observed SRs with the physical mechanisms behind them, examining to what extent current models reproduce the observational data. The emerging picture clarifies the complexity intrinsic to the galaxy formation and evolution process as well as the basic uncertainties still affecting our knowledge of the AGN phenomenon. At the same time, however, it suggests that the detailed analysis of the SRs can profitably contribute to our understanding of galaxies and AGN.


2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S262) ◽  
pp. 448-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth Wylie-de Boer ◽  
Kenneth Freeman

AbstractHERMES is a new, multi-object high resolution spectrometer for the 3.9m Anglo Australian Telescope, using the existing 2dF positioner. The primary goal of the HERMES survey is to unravel the history of the Galaxy from detailed elemental abundances for about 1.2 million individual stars. The HERMES chemical tagging survey concentrates on the 5000 to 8000 Å window at a resolving power of 30,000 in order to identify dissolved star formation aggregates and ascertain the importance of mergers throughout the history of the Galaxy.


2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S295) ◽  
pp. 191-199
Author(s):  
Carlton M. Baugh

AbstractMassive galaxies with old stellar populations have been put forwards as a challenge to models in which cosmic structures grow hierarchically through gravitational instability. I will explain how the growth of massive galaxies is helped by features of hierarchical models. I give a brief outline of how the galaxy formation process is modelled in hierarchical cosmologies using semi-analytical models, and illustrate how these models can be refined as our understanding of processes such as star formation improves. I then present a brief survey of the current state of play in the modelling of massive galaxies and list some outstanding challenges.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (S256) ◽  
pp. 281-286
Author(s):  
Carme Gallart ◽  
Ingrid Meschin ◽  
Antonio Aparicio ◽  
Peter B. Stetson ◽  
Sebastián L. Hidalgo

AbstractBased on the quantitative analysis of a set of wide-field color—magnitude diagrams reaching the old main sequence-turnoffs, we present new LMC star-formation histories, and their variation with galactocentric distance. Some coherent features are found, together with systematic variations of the star-formation history among the three fields analyzed. We find two main episodes of star formation in all three fields, from 1 to 4 and 7 to 13 Gyr ago, with relatively low star formation around ≃ 4–7 Gyr ago. The youngest age in each field gradually increases with galactocentric radius; in the innermost field, LMC 0514–6503, an additional star formation event younger than 1 Gyr is detected, with star formation declining, however, in the last ≃ 200 Myr. The population is found to be older on average toward the outer part of the galaxy, although star formation in all fields seems to have started around 13 Gyr ago.


2003 ◽  
Vol 208 ◽  
pp. 431-432
Author(s):  
N. Nakasato

In the current most plausible Cold Dark Matter (CDM) cosmology, larger halos increase their mass by the progressive mergers of smaller clumps. Due to these progressive merger events, galaxies have formed and evolved. Such merger events could trigger star bursts depending on mass of a merging object. In other words, star formation history reflects the strength of the interaction between a galaxy and merging objects. Also, a several merger events strongly affect the development of the morphology of galaxies as assumed in semi-analytic models. In the most advanced semi-analytic models, N-body simulations of dark matter particles are used to obtain the merging history of halos. By combining the description of radiative cooling, hydrodynamics and star formation with the obtained merging history, such models successfully have explained the various qualitative predictions. Here, we show the results of similar approach but using a fullly numerical model. In contrast to the semi-analytic models, we use our high resolution Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) models. With our SPH code, we try to tackle the problem of the galaxy morphology. We have done a several handful high-resolution SPH simulations and analyzed the merging history of such models. Accordingly, we can see the relation between the obtained morphology and the merging history or other physical properties of the model.


2014 ◽  
Vol 10 (S309) ◽  
pp. 99-104
Author(s):  
R. M. González Delgado ◽  
R. Cid Fernandes ◽  
R. García-Benito ◽  
E. Pérez ◽  
A. L. de Amorim ◽  
...  

AbstractWe resolve spatially the star formation history of 300 nearby galaxies from the CALIFA integral field survey to investigate: a) the radial structure and gradients of the present stellar populations properties as a function of the Hubble type; and b) the role that plays the galaxy stellar mass and stellar mass surface density in governing the star formation history and metallicity enrichment of spheroids and the disks of galaxies. We apply the fossil record method based on spectral synthesis techniques to recover spatially and temporally resolved maps of stellar population properties of spheroids and spirals with galaxy mass from 109 to 7×1011 M⊙. The individual radial profiles of the stellar mass surface density (μ⋆), stellar extinction (AV), luminosity weighted ages (〈logage〉L), and mass weighted metallicity (〈log Z/Z⊙〉M) are stacked in seven bins of galaxy morphology (E, S0, Sa, Sb, Sbc, Sc and Sd). All these properties show negative gradients as a sight of the inside-out growth of massive galaxies. However, the gradients depend on the Hubble type in different ways. For the same galaxy mass, E and S0 galaxies show the largest inner gradients in μ⋆; and Andromeda-like galaxies (Sb with log M⋆ (M⊙) ∼ 11) show the largest inner age and metallicity gradients. In average, spiral galaxies have a stellar metallicity gradient ∼ −0.1 dex per half-light radius, in agreement with the value estimated for the ionized gas oxygen abundance gradient by CALIFA. A global (M⋆-driven) and local (μ⋆-driven) stellar metallicity relation are derived. We find that in disks, the stellar mass surface density regulates the stellar metallicity; in spheroids, the galaxy stellar mass dominates the physics of star formation and chemical enrichment.


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