Cloudy-Maraston
Stellar population synthesis models serve as indispensable tools for unraveling the intricate narrative of galaxy evolution, and allow physical parameters, such as stellar mass and stellar formation rate, to be inferred from spectrophotometric data through fitting. They are also key for linking physical properties in theoretical models to their forward modelled emission. The advent of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has ushered in an era of abundant observations of young stellar populations at high redshift, characterized by strong emission lines, motivating us to integrate nebular emission into the M13 stellar population model.
I used the photoionisation code Cloudy to add nebular emission to new stellar population models by Maraston.
I compared these to recent data by JWST and found that different modelling assumptions in stellar population models
lead to very different predictions for the strength of the [O III] line which can lead to qualitative errors and highlights
the need for careful model selection when interpreting observations.