Prof. Anna L Frebel

Professor Frebel's research interests broadly cover the chemical and physical conditions of the early Universe, and how old, metal-deficient stars can be used to obtain constraints on the first stars and initial mass function, supernova yields and stellar nucleosynthesis. She is best known for her discoveries and subsequent spectroscopic analyses of the most metal-poor stars and how these stars can be employed to uncover information about the early Universe. By now, she has expanded her work to include observations of faint stars in the least luminous dwarf galaxies to obtained a more comprehensive view of how the Milky Way with its extended stellar halo formed. She carries out her observational research on old stars using the 6.5m Magellan telescopes in Chile through high-resolution optical spectroscopy.

Recently, Professor Frebel also started a large supercomputing project to simulate the formation and evolution of large galaxies like the Milky Way in a cosmological context. The N-body dark matter halos will ultimately help her trace the cosmological path of the oldest stars from their birth in the early universe until their arrival in the Milky Way halo through various merger events. This huge data set will also enable to quantify the breadth of galaxy formation and the abundance of substructure of large galaxies, among many other things.

Specifically, Professor Frebel's research interests include:

(*) Stellar archaeology: The most metal-poor stars, chemical evolution of the Milky Way and dwarf galaxies, stellar kinematics and galactic structure, supernova nucleosynthesis and neutron-capture processes, nuclear astrophysics, stellar evolution, stellar abundances, spectroscopic observations and analyses

(*) Near-field cosmology: The first stars, early star and galaxy formation, galaxy assembly on small scales, the formation of the Galactic halo, the age of the Universe