Rutgers University Astrophysics Seminar
Near-Field Cosmology with Chemical Abundances in Ultra-faint Dwarf Galaxies
Ultra-faint dwarf galaxies (UFDs, with stellar mass below 1e5 Msun) are relics of the first galaxies, providing a large population of local objects that can be connected to theoretical predictions of high-redshift star and galaxy formation. Much of the information is encoded in the chemical abundances of stars in these relic galaxies. I will describe the current status of chemical abundance measurements in UFD galaxies, focusing on how stochastic chemical enrichment can provide key insights into the nature of the first stars and the faint end of galaxy formation. The unique abundance trends observed in UFDs also enable chemical tagging of some Milky Way halo stars as originating from disrupted UFDs, enabling upcoming spectroscopic surveys to constrain the number of UFDs at high redshift.