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| Paper: |
The Chemical Abundance Structure of the Galactic Halo |
| Volume: |
165, The Third Stromlo Symposium: The Galactic Halo |
| Page: |
213 |
| Authors: |
Norris, John E. |
| Abstract: |
The metallicity distribution function and chemical abundance patterns of the Galactic halo are reviewed. At lowest abundance, no normal object has yet been found with [Fe/H] < --4.0, a limit which had already been reached some 15 years ago. High resolution abundance analyses now exist for significant samples of extremely metal-poor objects and studies of relative abundances, [X/Fe], as a function of [Fe/H] strongly restrict and challenge models of stellar nucleosynthesis and Galactic chemical enrichment. The observed abundance patterns serve to constrain not only the yields from individual stars but also the mass function of the populations providing the chemical enrichment. Some halo data are suggestive of an initial mass function of the enriching objects which was either non-Salpeter in form, or in which the ejecta from stars of different masses were not well-mixed before the formation of subsequent generations. |
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