Liam Dubay (Ohio State University)

Stellar abundance patterns in the Milky Way reflect a complex history of nucleosynthesis that is not fully understood. Recent advances in stellar age estimation techniques have added a new dimension to galactic archaeological studies, providing a direct probe of the chemical enrichment history across the disk. Using multi-zone galactic chemical evolution models and data from the APOGEE and Milky Way Mapper surveys, I will show how these catalogs can be leveraged to study the history of star formation and chemical enrichment across the Galaxy. First, the Milky Way’s age-metallicity relation is flat, which conflicts with the two-infall scenario and other models with major gas accretion events. Second, stellar [alpha/Fe] ratios reveal an extended delay-time distribution for Type Ia supernovae, offering a window into their progenitor systems. Finally, s-process elements such as Ce, which have been proposed as “chemical clocks,” provide observational constraints on the timescale of asymptotic giant branch nucleosynthesis.