Galactic Archaeology with the oldest stars in the Milky Way
Abstract
The oldest, most metal-poor stars we find in the Milky Way today were born in pristine environments in the early Universe. They contain unique clues about the First Stars and the early formation and evolution of our Galaxy. Most metal-poor stars are found in the Galactic halo, but the central halo overlapping with the Galactic bulge has often been avoided — it is challenging to identify metal-poor stars in this dusty, crowded area of the sky. In this talk, I will introduce the Pristine Inner Galaxy Survey (PIGS) which has reached unprecedented efficiency in finding very metal-poor stars in the Galactic bulge region. I will present recent PIGS results on the chemistry and the kinematics the metal-poor inner Galaxy, and discuss what they can teach us about this ancient component of the Milky Way. Of particular interest in Galactic Archaeology are the carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars, which are thought to be probes of the First Stars, early chemical evolution and binary interactions. I will also present some recent results on these CEMP stars.