Speaker: Birgitta Nordström, The Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen

When: Wednesday, 5 March, 2014

Where: 1520-732

Title: The Interplay of Stellar and Galactic Astrophysics (II)

Abstract:
The chemical composition of Population I stars is recorded in exquisite detail in the Solar System. The nuclear physics that built up the characteristic abundance pattern of the elements, constant through the Galactic disk, has also been understood for half a century and spawned a rich flora of chemical evolution models. The discovery ~25 years ago of stars with unprecedentedly low metallicities revealed abundance patterns suggesting a chaotic birth of the Galactic halo – a subject ripe for immediate study with UVES@VLT. I will review the main results from the “First Stars” project on ‘normal’ and some ‘peculiar’ classes of these early primitive stars, and our subsequent projects with FIES@NOT and X-shooter@VLT to understand how the halo was first enriched in heavy elements.