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SUMMARY:Galactic Astroarchaeology: Constraints on Formation and Evolution 
 of Galaxies - Francesca Matteucci (Trieste University\, Italy)
DTSTART:20150127T163000Z
DTEND:20150127T173000Z
UID:TALK56989@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:David Titterington
DESCRIPTION:Chemical abundances in stars and gas and their ratios are usef
 ul tools to impose constraints either on stellar nucleosynthesis or galaxy
  formation timescales.  There are particular abundances ratios\, such as f
 or example [Alpha/Fe] and [N/O]\, which can be used as cosmic clocks.  I w
 ill review successful models of galactic chemical evolution which enable u
 s to reconstruct the star formation history of a galaxy just by reproducin
 g the observed stellar and gas abundances and abundance ratios.  I will sh
 ow that this astro-archaeological approach has been successful in explaini
 ng the abundances in different galaxy types.  In particular\, I will discu
 ss the chemical evolution of the Milky Way\, the dwarf spheroidals of the 
 Local Group and elliptical galaxies and the constraints we can impose on t
 heir evolutionary history\, and in particular on the timescales of their f
 ormation.  I will demonstrate that the history of star formation of a gala
 xy is the main driver of its evolution and that chemical abundances in som
 e cases suggest modalities of galaxy formation which differ from the predi
 ctions of hierarchical galaxy evolution models.\n
LOCATION:Sackler Lecture Theatre\, Institute of Astronomy
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