First Principles

Cosmic phylogeny from first principles.

Fossil data is extremely imperfect. In addition to limited and uncertain observables in the fossil data (in our case, stellar abundances), it lacks a complete coverage in the timeframe which is being investigated (in our case, from the big bang to the present). This makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to associate fossil data to a given lineage or evolutionary time unless we know what to expect, at least, theoretically. From first principles in chemical evolution theory we are developing a theoretical framework that will help us to assess the probability in which stars, given their observables, belong to different branches in the phylogeny, and how they most likely evolved along these branches.