Foto del docente

Alessio Mucciarelli

Associate Professor

Department of Physics and Astronomy "Augusto Righi"

Academic discipline: FIS/05 Astronomy and Astrophysics

Research

Keywords: resolved stellar populations chemical abundances dwarf and irregular galaxies globular clusters stellar spectroscopy stellar evolution stellar model atmospheres

The broad context of my research activity is the study of stellar populations (SPs) in our Galaxy and the Local Group, where stars can be individually resolved and studied in great detail. Resolved SPs represent a fundamental tool (i) to test the predictions of the stellar evolution theory, (ii) to reconstruct the formation, evolution and chemical enrichment history of their parent galaxies, (iii) to predict the temporal evolution of the spectral energy distribution for SPs for which only integrated information is available, as distant galaxies.

In particular, I focussed my attention to the study of the chemical and kinematical properties of globular clusters which are ideal benchmarks to investigate the chemical evolution of their parent galaxy, the chemical self-enrichment processes occurring in the early stages of their life and the dynamical processes occurring in virtue of their very high stellar density. The main approach that I have followed is the reading of stellar spectra, where a wealth of information about the chemical composition, the kinematics and the parameters of the stars are imprinted.

 

My activity is developed along the following main lines of research:

  • Resolved stellar populations in the globular clusters of the Milky Way and in the Local Group;
  • Chemical evolution of the stellar populations in the Magellanic Clouds and in the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy;
  • Chemical properties of metal-poor stars to characterize the chemical evolution of the oldest stars in different galaxies;
  • Primordial nucleosynthesis and chemical abundances of the light elements;
  • Computation of stellar model atmospheres;
  • Development of software for the chemical analysis of stellar spectra.