Are the most metal-poor galaxies young?

Details Are the most metal-poor galaxies young? Are the most metal-poor galaxies young?

2007-04-28

arxiv.org/abs/0704.3803v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Galaxy Evolution across the Hubble Time Proceedings IAU Symposium No. 235, 2006 F.Combes and J. Palous, eds. c 2006 Internatio

Scientific paper

We review the possibility that metallicity could provide a diagnostic for the age of a galaxy, hence that the most metal-poor star forming galaxies in the local universe may be genuinely young. Indeed, observational evidence for downsizing shows the average age of the stars in a galaxy to decrease with decreasing mass and metallicity. However, we conclude both from observational and theoretical viewpoints that metallicity is not an arrow of time. Consequently the most metal poor galaxies of our local universe are not necessarely young. Current observations suggest that an old stellar population is present in all metal-poor galaxies, although a couple of cases, e.g. IZw18, remain under debate. Further observations with more sentitive equipement should settle this question in the coming years.

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