Table of Contents

1. Observational Evidence for Chemical Evolution.- 1.1 Overview and historical perspective.- 1.2 Abundances in stars.- 1.3 Abundances in globular clusters.- 1.4 The metallicity distribution of the local disk G-dwarfs.- 1.5 The metallicity distribution of halo stars.- 1.6 The age-metallicity relation.- 1.7 Abundances in the bulge stars.- 1.8 Abundances from planetary nebulae.- 1.9 Abundances from HII regions, B stars, open clusters.- 1.10 Isotopic ratios.- 1.11 The abundances of light elements.- 1.12 The mass distribution in the Galaxy.- 1.13 Supernovae and supernova rates.- 1.14 Nova rates.- 2. Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis.- 2.1 The evolution of single stars.- 2.2 Nucleosynthesis.- 2.3 The evolution of binary systems.- 2.4 Stellar yields.- 2.5 Local abundances and nuclear processes.- 2.6 Algorithms to compute the stellar yields.- 2.7 The influence of mass loss and overshooting on the stellar yields.- 2.8 Galactic yields.- 3. The Stellar Birthrate.- 3.1 The process of star formation.- 3.2 Derivation of the stellar birthrate.- 3.3 The parametrizations of the SFR.- 4. Gas Flows.- 4.1 Infall of gas onto the Galaxy.- 4.2 Radial flows along the galactic disk.- 4.3 Galactic winds.- 5. Basic Equations of Chemical Evolution.- 5.1 Analytical models.- 5.2 Numerical models.- 5.3 Chemo-dynamical models.- 6. Formation and Evolution of the Milky Way.- 6.1 Abundances and kinematics.- 6.2 The globular clusters ages and the formation of the halo.- 6.3 Abundance ratios and galaxy formation.- 6.4 Serial formation.- 6.5 Parallel formation.- 6.6 Two-infall formation.- 6.7 The evolution of the solar neighbourhood.- 6.8 The evolution of the galactic disk.- 6.9 The evolution of light elements and their impact on cosmology.- 6.10 The chemical evolution of the galactic bulge.- 6.11 How reliable are chemical evolution models?.- 7. Nucleochronology and the Age of the Galaxy.- 7.1 Radioactive dating of elements.- 7.2 The age of the galaxy.- 8. The Milky Way and other Spiral Galaxies.- 8.1 Abundances and abundance gradients.- 8.2 Correlations between abundances and galaxy properties.- 8.3 Field and cluster spirals.- 8.4 Formation and evolution of galactic disks.- 8.5 The Milky Way at high redshift.- 9. References.- Acknowledgments.

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"The development of the field (of galactic chemical evolution) in the past two decades is impressive, Matteucci herself having made significant contributions. As a planetary geochemist, I found her clear and precise treatment very useful... the book is an example of straightforward writing...it is easy to find one's way around."
(Stuart Ross Taylor, Dept. of Geology, Australian National University, Canberra in Nature 414:253 (2001)