The observable characteristics and subsequent evolution of young stellar populations is dominated by their massive stars. As our understanding of those massive stars and the factors affecting their evolution improves, so our interpretation of distant, unresolved stellar systems can also advance. As observations increasingly probe the distant Universe, and the rare low-metallicity starbursts nearby, so the opportunity arises for these two fields to complement one another and leads to an improved conception of both stars and galaxies. Here, we review the current state of the art in modeling of massive star–dominated stellar populations and discuss their applications and implications for interpreting the distant Universe. Our principal findings include the following: ▪ Binary evolutionary pathways must be included to understand the stellar populations in early galaxies. ▪ Observations constraining the extreme ultraviolet spectrum of early galaxies are showing that current models are incomplete. The best current guess is that some form of accretion onto compact remnants is required. ▪ The evolution and fates of very massive stars, on the order of 100 M⊙ and above, may be key to fully understand aspects of early galaxies.

中文翻译：

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对大质量恒星演化及其对我们理解早期星系影响的新见解


年轻恒星族的可观测特征和随后的演化主要由它们的大质量恒星决定。随着我们对这些大质量恒星以及影响其演化的因素的了解不断加深，我们对遥远的、未解决的恒星系统的解释也能取得进展。随着观测越来越多地探索遥远的宇宙，以及附近罕见的低金属丰度星暴，这两个领域出现了相互补充的机会，并导致恒星和星系的概念得到改进。在这里，我们回顾了当前以大质量恒星为主的恒星群建模的最新技术，并讨论了它们的应用和对解释遥远宇宙的影响。我们的主要发现包括以下内容： ▪ 必须包括二元演化路径才能了解早期星系中的恒星种群。 ▪ 对早期星系极紫外光谱的观测表明，当前模型并不完整。目前最好的猜测是，需要某种形式的致密残骸上的吸积。 ▪ 100 M⊙ 及以上的超大质量恒星的演化和命运可能是充分了解早期星系各个方面的关键。