Old Stellar Populations: How to Study the Fossil Record of Galaxy Formation

The book discusses the theoretical path to decoding the information gathered from observations of old stellar systems. It focuses on old stellar systems because these are the fossil record of galaxy formation and provide invaluable information ont he evolution of cosmic structures and the universe as a whole. The aim is to present results obtained in the past few years for theoretical developments in low mass star research and in advances in our knowledge of the evolution of old stellar systems. A particularly representative case is the recent discovery of multiple stellar populations in galactic globular clusters that represents one of the hottest topics in stellar and galactic astrophysics and is discussed in detail.

Santi Cassisi has authored about 270 scientific papers, 150 of them in peer-reviewed journals, and the title Evolution of Stars and Stellar Populations.

Keywords: stars fossil record, photometric diagnostics, spectroscopic diagnostics, low mass stars, hayashi track, standard solar model, Blue Stragglers, SX Phoenicis Stars, Subgiant Branch Evolution, Red Giant Branch Evolution, Red Giant Branch Isochrones, Helium Burning Stages, Star Formation Histories, star clusters age