Chemical enrichment of high-z galaxies: latest results from JWST and future perspectives
Mirko Curti (INAF - OAS)
Tuesday 17/02/2026 @ 14:00, Sala Antonio Sollima (IV piano Battiferro)
The James Webb Space Telescope has fulfilled its long-awaited promises, opening an entirely new window to constrain star-formation, metal and dust enrichment, and feedback processes in some of the earliest galaxies ever formed. A key driver of this progress is the JWST capability to deliver auroral-line detections out to high redshift, enabling increasingly robust, physically motivated electron-temperature (Te)-based metallicity measurements beyond the local Universe. Yet the emerging picture remains complex. Several studies point to rapid chemical enrichment and an increased scatter in metallicity scaling relations--potentially reflecting more stochastic star-formation and feedback--while compelling candidates for (nearly) pristine, extremely metal-poor systems have also been reported In parallel, growing evidence for non-solar abundance patterns (e.g. elevated N/O at low O/H) suggests variations in star-formation efficiency and/or short-timescale enrichment channels, possibly linked to very massive stars. After a brief overview of the latest results in the field, I will present some recent developments in the study of detailed chemical abundances in high-z galaxies that leverage deep NIRSpec spectroscopy in combination with novel, multi-cloud photoionisation modeling. I will also discuss how the evolution in the metallicity-dependence of star-formation and the prevalence of non-solar abundance patterns across the cosmic history can influence our understanding of stellar evolution and the predicted rates of phenomena linked to metal-poor progenitors. Finally, I will discuss future prospects in light of forthcoming large spectroscopic surveys (e.g. MOONS, 4MOST) and next-generation ground-based (ELT) and space-based (e.g. PRIMA) facilities.