De re metallica: the cosmic chemical evolution of galaxies
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Publication Date
2019-02-04Journal Title
Astronomy and Astrophysics Review
ISSN
0935-4956
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Volume
27
Issue
1
Type
Article
This Version
AM
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Maiolino, R., & Mannucci, F. (2019). De re metallica: the cosmic chemical evolution of galaxies. Astronomy and Astrophysics Review, 27 (1) https://doi.org/10.1007/s00159-018-0112-2
Abstract
The evolution of the content of heavy elements in galaxies, the relative
chemical abundances, their spatial distribution, and how these scale with
various galactic properties, provide unique information on the galactic
evolutionary processes across the cosmic epochs. In recent years major progress
has been made in constraining the chemical evolution of galaxies and inferring
key information relevant to our understanding of the main mechanisms involved
in galaxy evolution. In this review we provide an overview of these various
areas. After an overview of the methods used to constrain the chemical
enrichment in galaxies and their environment, we discuss the observed scaling
relations between metallicity and galaxy properties, the observed relative
chemical abundances, how the chemical elements are distributed within galaxies,
and how these properties evolve across the cosmic epochs. We discuss how the
various observational findings compare with the predictions from theoretical
models and numerical cosmological simulations. Finally, we briefly discuss the
open problems the prospects for progress in this field in the nearby future.
Sponsorship
STFC
ERC
Funder references
Science and Technology Facilities Council (ST/M001172/1)
European Research Council (695671)
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00159-018-0112-2
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/288177
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http://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved
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