Dear all,

Santi Cassisi will be visiting from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics in the first week of February and giving us a seminar.  

Title: The oldest stellar populations in the Milky Way: the multiple stellar population phenomenon in Galactic Globular Clusters and its implication for the Galaxy formation

Abstract: The discovery of the presence of distinct sub-stellar populations in Galactic Globular Clusters represents one of the most astonishing results in the field of Stellar Astrophysics. Not only it has severely challenged our view of these stellar systems as the prototypes of Simple Stellar Populations, but it has posed a number of - still largely unsolved - issues related to the physical processes responsible of the origin and properties of these multiple stellar populations. During this presentation, we discuss the observational framework and the theoretical evolutionary scenario that is used for explaining (some of) the various empirical evidence. A general overview of the proposed scenarios for the formation of multiple stellar populations is also provided by emphasising the many open questions. The Multiple Stellar Population Phenomenon will be discussed in the cosmological context of the Galaxy formation.

In the context of the Milky Way formation scenario, we also briefly discuss our recent discovery of what we think is the oldest stellar population formed in the Galaxy: this finding provides a crystal clear picture of the early sequence of events that gave rise to the complex MW structure.

All are welcome to join the seminar,

Best regards,

The SAC Seminar Team