Stellar Chemical Abundances in Galaxy Systems
Summary
Stellar chemical abundances encode the nucleosynthetic history and assembly processes of galaxies. Measurements of element ratios in stellar atmospheres reveal successive generations of star formation, mass exchange with the interstellar medium and accretion of external systems. In parallel, gas-phase abundances traced by emission lines in H II regions and planetary nebulae offer complementary insights into ongoing enrichment, radial mixing and feedback processes. Radial and azimuthal abundance gradients record the balance between inflow of pristine gas, outflows driven by stellar feedback and radial migration of stars. At high redshift, spatially resolved metallicity maps enabled by integral-field and slitless spectroscopy are extending these diagnostics to the epoch of peak cosmic star formation. Together, stellar and gas-phase abundance studies provide a coherent picture of how galaxies grow, mix and enrich over cosmic time, with implications for the chemical evolution of the Milky Way and external systems.
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Stellar Chemical Abundances in Galaxy Systems publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in stellar chemical abundances in galaxy systems across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Metallicity (Z): The fraction of mass in elements heavier than helium, often expressed logarithmically relative to the Sun.
Radial metallicity gradient: The change in metallicity with galactocentric radius, typically in dex per kiloparsec.
Integral-field spectroscopy: A technique that acquires spectra over a two-dimensional field, enabling spatially resolved measurements of kinematics and abundances.
Ionization parameter (q): The ratio of ionising photon density to gas density, influencing the strength of diagnostic emission lines.
H II region: A cloud of ionised hydrogen surrounding young massive stars, widely used as a tracer of present-day gas-phase abundances.
References
- Early Results from GLASS-JWST. IV. Spatially Resolved Metallicity in a Low-mass z ∼ 3 Galaxy with NIRISS* *Based on observations acquired by the JWST under the ERS program ID 1324 (PI T. Treu).. The Astrophysical Journal Letters (2022).
- The 2D metallicity distribution and mixing scales of nearby galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2021).
- The KLEVER Survey: spatially resolved metallicity maps and gradients in a sample of 1.2. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (2019).
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