Chemical evolution of the Universe and its consequences for gravitational-wave astrophysics

Understand

We are now routinely detecting gravitational waves (GW) emitted by merging black holes and neutron stars.

• Those are the afterlives of massive stars that formed all across the Universe - at different times and with different metallicities (abundances of elements heavier than helium).
• Birth metallicity plays an important role in the evolution of massive stars.
• Consequently, the population properties of mergers are sensitive to the metallicity dependent cosmic star formation history (f$_{\rm SFR}$(Z,z)).