Stellar elemental abundances constraining nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution of the universe.

Measurements of elemental abundances of stars in the Milky Way and surrounding dwarf galaxies in the past few decades have been providing useful constraints on modeling the nucleosynthesis and chemical evolution. Recent large spectroscopic surveys combined with studies on dynamical motions of stars in the Milky Way reveal connections between chemical enrichment and galaxy formation. This paper provides a brief overview of the recent update of the understanding of the distribution of elemental abundances and remaining issues for key elements, mostly focusing on the low metallicity range which should reflect nucleosynthesis by massive stars and early chemical evolution. This covers the abundance ratios of α-elements, iron-peak elements, and neutron-capture elements which have been measured for a large number of metal-poor stars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]