Quantitative Spectroscopy of the Young Stellar Population in Star Forming Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper reviews recent methods for analyzing the chemical composition of star forming galaxies using stellar absorption lines, highlighting new techniques involving spectroscopy of individual stars, clusters, and integrated stellar populations, and discusses future prospects with ELTs.

Contribution

It introduces and evaluates new spectroscopic methods for studying stellar populations in star forming galaxies, offering alternatives to traditional emission line analysis.

Findings

Multi-object spectroscopy of supergiants provides detailed chemical info.

NIR spectroscopy of super star clusters reveals stellar population properties.

Optical spectroscopy of integrated light helps understand galaxy evolution.

Abstract

The determination of chemical composition is crucial for investigating the formation and evolution of star forming galaxies and provides a powerful tool to constrain the effects of galactic winds and accretion from the cosmic web. In this regard stellar absorption line studies provide an attractive alternative to the standard techniques using the strong emission lines of HII regions. We discuss a number of newly developed methods: - multi-object spectroscopy of individual blue and red supergiant stars, the brightest stars in the universe at visual and NIR wavelengths, - NIR spectroscopy of super star clusters, - optical spectroscopy of the integrated light of stellar populations in the disks of star forming galaxies, and present results accumulated over the last two years. We then discuss the scientific perspectives and potential of these methods for the use of ELTs.