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The stochastic enrichment of Population II stars (2020)
Journal Article
Welsh, L., Cooke, R., & Fumagalli, M. (2021). The stochastic enrichment of Population II stars. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 500(4), 5214-5228. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3342

We investigate the intrinsic scatter in the chemical abundances of a sample of metal-poor ([Fe/H] < −2.5) Milky Way halo stars. We draw our sample from four historic surveys and focus our attention on the stellar Mg, Ca, Ni, and Fe abundances. Using... Read More about The stochastic enrichment of Population II stars.

MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) - II: Metal-enriched halo gas around z ∼ 1 galaxies (2020)
Journal Article
Dutta, R., Fumagalli, M., Fossati, M., Lofthouse, E. K., Prochaska, J. X., Battaia, F. A., …O’Meara, J. M. (2020). MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) - II: Metal-enriched halo gas around z ∼ 1 galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 499(4), 5022-5046. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa3147

We present a study of the metal-enriched cool halo gas traced by Mg II absorption around 228 galaxies at z ∼ 0.8–1.5 within 28 quasar fields from the MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies survey. We observe no significant evolution in the Mg II equiva... Read More about MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) - II: Metal-enriched halo gas around z ∼ 1 galaxies.

The PHLEK Survey: A New Determination of the Primordial Helium Abundance (2020)
Journal Article
Hsyu, T., Cooke, R. J., Prochaska, J. X., & Bolte, M. (2020). The PHLEK Survey: A New Determination of the Primordial Helium Abundance. Astrophysical Journal, 896(1), Article 77. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ab91af

We present Keck NIRSPEC and Keck NIRES spectroscopy of sixteen metal-poor galaxies that have pre-existing optical observations. The near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy specifically targets the He I λ10830 Å emission line, due to its sensitivity to the p... Read More about The PHLEK Survey: A New Determination of the Primordial Helium Abundance.

A limit on Planck-scale froth with ESPRESSO (2020)
Journal Article
Pettini, M., Fumagalli, M., Welsh, L., & Cooke, R. (2020). A limit on Planck-scale froth with ESPRESSO. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 494(4), 4884-4890. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa440

Some models of quantum gravity predict that the very structure of space–time is ‘frothy’ due to quantum fluctuations. Although the effect is expected to be tiny, if these space–time fluctuations grow over a large distance, the initial state of a phot... Read More about A limit on Planck-scale froth with ESPRESSO.

A bound on the 12C/13C ratio in near-pristine gas with ESPRESSO (2020)
Journal Article
Pettini, M., Fumagalli, M., Cooke, R., & Welsh, L. (2020). A bound on the 12C/13C ratio in near-pristine gas with ESPRESSO. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 494(1), 1411-1423. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa807

Using science verification observations obtained with ESPRESSO at the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in 4UT mode, we report the first bound on the carbon isotope ratio 12C/13C of a quiescent, near-pristine damped Lyα (DLA) system at z = 2.34. We infer a... Read More about A bound on the 12C/13C ratio in near-pristine gas with ESPRESSO.