Abstract

Invited Talk - Splinter LowMet

Thursday, 12 September 2024, 16:15   (S23)

Galactic Chemical Evolution and Dust at Different Metallicities: An Intricate Puzzle

Marco Palla
University of Bologna, INAF-OAS

Understanding the evolution of galaxies across cosmic time is one of the fundamental goals of present-day astrophysics. This field has seen significant advancements in the last decade, driven by contributions from various observational facilities focused on different targets at different distance scales, from stellar chemical abundances in our Galaxy to high-redshift interstellar medium (ISM) abundances and dust measurements. Connecting these diverse pieces of information is therefore crucial for a comprehensive understanding of the processes regulating chemical and dust evolution across different metallicities and cosmic times. In this talk, I will review key concepts and ingredients in the study of galactic chemical evolution, with a particular focus on dust evolution in galaxies. In particular, I will highlight the caveats and degeneracies that persist in modelling galactic chemical and dust evolution across various cosmic environments. On this side, I will discuss how JWST metallicity measurements in high-redshifts galaxy could potentially be a gamechanger in this research area, when complemented with robust dust masses from ALMA. However, I will also show that the global dust masses and metallicity alone are insufficient for a complete understanding: chemical abundance ratios and differential dust depletion are essential to fully interpret the observational data from different galaxies.