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TRACING ABUNDANCES IN GALAXIES WITH THE SPITZER ...

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seed nuclei relative to the β decay timescale (Iben & Renzini, 1983). While each<br />

of these stars has much less mass and evolves more slowly than a massive star,<br />

the Galaxy contains many more of these low-intermediate mass stars, and they<br />

probably produce most of the nitrogen and carbon in the interstellar medium<br />

today (Chiappini et al., 2003), making carbon mainly as a primary element and<br />

making nitrogen mainly as a secondary element during hydrogen burning (in the<br />

CNO cycle).<br />

In summary, stars with masses (∼8 M⊙–100 M⊙) which explode as core collapse<br />

SNe make most of the α-elements (like oxygen, neon, sulfur, and argon) as well as<br />

heavy r-process elements on short timescales (1–10 Myr). Low–intermediate mass<br />

stars that end their lives as Type Ia SNe produce most of the iron and limited<br />

amounts of other heavy elements on long timescales (10 Myr to 10+ Gyr). The<br />

other low–intermediate mass stars produce helium, carbon, nitrogen and heavy<br />

s-process elements, releasing their material into the interstellar medium also on<br />

long timescales. The abundance ratio of an element released in to the interstellar<br />

medium on a short timescale to that of an element released on a long timescale<br />

serves as a cosmic clock, revealing the nature of the chemical evolution of a galaxy.<br />

1.1.2 Formation and Evolution of the Galaxy<br />

Figure 1.1 shows a diagram of the different parts of the Milky Way. The Disk<br />

(including the Thin and Thick Disks) contains gas and stars. The Thin Disk<br />

contains most of the mass of the Disk and the young stars; the Thick Disk contains<br />

only a few percent of the total mass of the Disk and most of the old stars. The Bulge<br />

resides at the center of the Disk, and a spherical Outer Halo of stars surrounds<br />

the Disk and Bulge, with a spherical dark matter Halo extending out beyond the<br />

stellar Halo (Carroll & Ostlie, 1996). The Inner Halo of stars has a more squashed<br />

4

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