Galaxies 09: Assembly, Gas Content and Star Formation History of Galaxies
Alberto Bolatto
University of Maryland
Molecular Gas at Low Metallicities:
what we know and what ALMA will tell us
Prevalent in the primitive universe, environments poor in heavy elements
are common today in the form of dwarf galaxies or the outer disks of
large spirals. Particularly prominent examples are the Magellanic
Clouds, with abundances 1/2 and 1/5 Solar, or the extreme local dwarfs
IZw18 and SBS 0335-052 with abundances $\sim1/35$ Solar. In this talk I
will discuss how the lack of heavy elements shapes the molecular
interstellar medium and the star formation in these objects, how
the local metal-poor systems illuminate our understanding of the
high-redshift universe, and what role ALMA will play at studying
the physics of these environments at low and high redshifts.
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