Metal-poor Galaxies in the Local Universe

A galaxy's mean metallicity is usually closely correlated with its luminosity and mass. Consequently the most metal-poor galaxies in the local universe are dwarf galaxies. Blue compact dwarfs and tidal dwarfs tend to deviate from the metallicity-luminosity relation by being too metal-poor or too metal-rich for their luminosity, respectively. A less pronounced offset separates dwarf spheroidal (dSph) and dwarf irregular galaxies, making the former too metal-rich for their luminosity, which indicates different formation conditions for these two types of dwarfs. While environment (photo-evaporation through local re-ionization by massive galaxies, tidal and ram pressure stripping) govern the observed morphology-distance relation, intrinsic properties (in particular total mass) play a decisive role in dwarf galaxy evolution with respect to the time and duration of star formation and the amount of enrichment. The metallicity distribution functions of nearby dwarfs can be understood taking pre-enrichment, gas infall, and winds into account. Many dwarfs show evidence for inhomogeneous, localized enrichment. Ultra-faint dSphs, which may have formed their metal-poor stars at high redshift via H2 cooling, show an overabundance of metal-deficient stars as compared to the (inner) Galactic halo, but may, along with classical dSphs, have contributed significantly to the build-up of the outer halo. The abundance ratios measured in the irregular Large Magellanic Cloud are consistent with the postulated early accretion of irregulars to form the inner Galactic halo.Comment: Invited review, "First Stars IV" in Kyoto, Japan, 2012. 12 pages. To appear in AIP Conference Proceeding

Stellar Populations in the Local Group of Galaxies

The characteristics and properties of the stellar populations and evolutionary histories of Local Group galaxies are summarized and compared to predictions of cosmological models. No clear signature of the re-ionization epoch is observed; in particular, there is no cessation of star formation activity in low-mass dwarf galaxies at the end of re-ionization. Arguments against the morphological transformation of dwarf irregular into dwarf spheroidal galaxies are derived from their pronounced evolutionary differences at early epochs as evidenced by the offset in the metallicity-luminosity relation between gas-rich and gas-poor dwarfs. While there is increasing evidence for past and ongoing accretion events the overall importance of dwarf galaxies as building blocks remains unclear considering their differences in modes of star formation and detailed chemistry.Comment: Invited talk at the first international workshop on "Stellar Astrophysics with the World's Largest Telescopes", Torun, Poland, 7-10 September 2004, 14 pages, 2 figure

On the origin of the radial mass density profile of the Galactic halo Globular Cluster System

We investigate what may be the origin of the presently observed spatial distribution of the mass of the Galactic Old Halo globular cluster system. We propose its radial mass density profile to be a relic of the distribution of the cold baryonic material in the protoGalaxy. Assuming that this one arises from the profile of the whole protoGalaxy minus the contribution of the dark matter (and a small contribution of the hot gas by which the protoglobular clouds were bound), we show that the mass distributions around the Galactic centre of this cold gas and of the Old Halo agree satisfactorily. In order to demonstrate our hypothesis even more conclusively, we simulate the evolution with time, up to an age of 15 Gyr, of a putative globular cluster system whose initial mass distribution in the Galactic halo follows the profile of the cold protogalactic gas. We show that beyond a galactocentric distance of order 2 to 3 kpc, the initial shape of such a mass density profile is preserved in spite of the complete destruction of some globular clusters and the partial evaporation of some others. This result is almost independent of the choice of the initial mass function for the globular clusters, which is still ill-determined. The shape of these evolved cluster system mass density profiles also agree with the presently observed profile of the Old Halo globular cluster system, thus strengthening our hypothesis. Our result might suggest that the flattening shown by the Old Halo mass density profile at short distance from the Galactic centre is, at least partly, of primordial origin.Comment: 10 pages, accepted in MNRA