Seminar by Kaley Brauer, Harvard
The chemical makeup of ancient stars provides important clues about how galaxies formed and evolved in the early Universe. The Aeos project is a set of high-resolution simulations that model how individual stars form, enrich their surroundings with chemical elements, and shape the first galaxies in the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. We study the range of chemical elements found in stars within small galaxies, how metals spread through space, and how individual stars influence their environments. Our work shows that the masses of the first (Population III) stars play a key role: if these stars are more massive on average, they suppress the formation of small galaxies and change the chemical patterns we see in later stars. Aeos also highlights how galaxies in the early Universe were closely connected, with larger galaxies enriching their neighbors with heavy elements.
Host: Jennifer Mead