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Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.

Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.

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Population III Stars and Evolutionary Stellar Metallicity

Description
Study of the early Universe is filled with many unknowns, one of which is the nature of the very first generation of stars, otherwise designated as "Population III stars". The early Universe was composed almost entirely of cold hydrogen and helium, with only trace amounts of any heavier elements. As…

Study of the early Universe is filled with many unknowns, one of which is the nature of the very first generation of stars, otherwise designated as "Population III stars". The early Universe was composed almost entirely of cold hydrogen and helium, with only trace amounts of any heavier elements. As such, these stars would have compositions very different from the stars we are able to observe today, which would in turn change how these stars functioned, as well as their lifespans. Population III stars are so old that the light they emitted has not yet reached us here on Earth. Yet we know they have to have existed, so how do we go about studying objects that we have not yet observed? And more importantly, is there a metallicity threshold at which stars begin to behave like the stars we observe today? These areas are where stellar modelling programs such as TYCHO8 and the Spanish Virtual Observatory's Theoretical Spectra Web Server (TSWS) come in. These programs allow astronomers to model the physics of Pop III stars. We can get a pretty good understanding of how these stars behaved, how long they lived, and the visual spectra they would have emitted. Such information is crucial to astronomers being able to search for remnants of these stars, and one day, the stars themselves.
ContributorsMena, Julian (Author) / Young, Patrick (Thesis director) / Bowman, Judd (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Earth and Space Exploration (Contributor)
Created2022-05