Metallicity and kinematical clues to the formation of the Local Group

Abstract

The kinematics and elemental abundances of resolved stars in the nearby Universe can be used to infer conditions at high redshift, trace how galaxies evolve and constrain the nature of dark matter. This approach is complementary to direct study of systems at high redshift, but I will show that analysis of individual stars allows one to break degeneracies, such as between star formation rate and stellar Initial Mass Function, that complicate the analysis of unresolved, distant galaxies.

10 pages, 5 figures. Invited review at the Astronomische Gesellschaft Annual Fall Meeting, `Deciphering the Universe through Spectroscopy', Potsdam, 21-25 September 2009

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