Joint Astrophysical Colloquium
Galactic Archaeology: a Natural History of the Milky Way
Maria Francesca Matteucci (Università di Trieste)
Thursday 30/11/2023 @ 11:30, Sala Antonio Sollima (IV piano Battiferro) + remoto
Galactic archaeology allows us to reconstruct the history of star formation and evolution of galaxies by means of chemical abundances. Most of the attention is paid to the Milky Way for which we have now the largest amount of observational data. In the last years, in fact, large stellar spectroscopic surveys of the Milky Way have allowed us to compare theoretical chemical evolution models to data and infer important constraints on the history of our Galaxy. I will first explain how to build detailed chemical models and discuss the main necessary ingredients I will then review and interpret the highlights in the chemical evolution of the Milky Way, such as the observed bimodality in the [alpha/Fe] ratios in the stars of the thick and thin disc, the different stellar populations inhabiting the bulge, the abundance gradients along the thin disc and their evolution with time. I will also discuss the formation of neutron capture elements, such as Europium, by merging neutron stars and supernovae core-collapse. The Lithium cosmological problem, which involves Galactic halo stars, will be finally presented.