How did the Milky Way assemble its mass

Galaxies are observed at every stage of apparent maturity in both the very early universe and today.

Using the Milky Way as an example of a mature galaxy with a turbulent history, I will investigate 1) How did the Milky Way assemble its mass? and 2) How is galaxy evolution reflected in the elemental abundance patterns of stars?

I will develop custom models to determine which elements are most sensitive to differences in galaxy evolution and what they indicate about the host galaxy’s properties.

Using signatures from the elemental abundance patterns in stars, I will identify accreted stellar populations in the Milky Way and characterize the dwarf galaxies that brought them. The project will be organized into four sub-projects lead by either the PI or the postdoc to be hired.

Models of low-mass galaxy chemical evolution will be developed and used to determine the evolutionary history and mass of nearby dwarf galaxy and accreted Milky Way stellar populations based on elemental abundance measurements.

The observational data will come from three large spectroscopic surveys: APOGEE (completed), WEAVE (starting 2022), and 4MOST (starting 2023).

We will be active members in these surveys, contributing to data quality assessment and gaining detailed expert knowledge of the data.

We will provide a public catalog of galaxy models, a full characterization of three local dwarf galaxies, and the mass assembly history of the Milky Way, a pillar in understanding galaxy evolution generally.