The abundance of metals in gas and stars is a powerful probe of the baryon cycle and galaxy formation histories. There is particlar interest in using chemical abundances to probe the growth and formation of galaxies at high redshifts, when star-formation rates were higher and gas flows are thought to be stronger than in the local Universe. The majority of work in this area has focused on "one-dimensional" single-element analyses leveraging the oxygen abundance in the gas-phase ISM or the iron abundance in the stellar population as a tracer of bulk metallicity. Recently, the spectroscopic sensitivity of JWST's instrument suite has enabled the measurement of detailed chemical abundance patterns of several elements in individual high-redshift galaxies for the first time. I will discuss progress in understanding galaxy formation through the lens of chemical abundances both before and during the JWST era, and highlight some unexpected results that remain difficult to interpret. HWO's UV+optical spectrograph could provide key observations to solve JWST's mysteries of the high-redshift Universe.
Seminar Schedule: Every first Wednesday of the month, 1pm – 2pm ET
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Recording and slides for past seminars will be made available on the SIG’s Events page.