Workshop on using the [α/Fe] abundance ratio
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A workshop on using the [α/Fe] abundance ratio as a tracer of formation and evolution of the Galaxy has been successfully held in Beijing on Sept. 28-30, 2009 by reporting and discussing recent discoveries and developments in stellar abundance studies and related fields.
Understanding how the Galaxy forms and evolves is one of the main objectives of Galactic astrophysics and cosmology. The [α/Fe] abundance ratios (where α refers to the abundance of typical α-capture elements like Mg, Si, Ca and Ti) of stellar populations in the Galaxy and their kinematic properties supply important information about the Galaxy's formation process.One of the most important results is the detection of a few low [α/Fe] stars in the halo. Actually, the chemical signatures of stars in the Milky Way's dwarf galaxies also point to lower values of [α/Fe] than in the majority of Galactic halo, thick-disk and bulge stars. But the number of low [α/Fe] halo stars seems relatively small, which indicates that the main components of our Galaxy have not been formed through the merging of dwarf galaxies similar to present-day dSphs. This could be seen as an argument against hierarchical structure formation as predicted in Cold Dark Matter cosmologies.
NOTE: The Registration is closed.
Contact: Yuqin CHEN ✉ cyq
@ bao.ac.cn ☏ +86-10-64863224Links:
[1] http://galtracer2009.bao.ac.cn/sites/default/files/fig21_1.jpg
[2] http://galtracer2009.bao.ac.cn/sites/default/files/caption2.jpg
[3] http://arxiv.org/abs/0807.3831