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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关于大质量恒星演化及其对我们理解早期星系的影响的新见解


年轻恒星群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。随着我们对那些大质量恒星和影响它们演化的因素的理解的提高，我们对遥远的、未分辨的恒星系统的解释也可以取得进展。随着观测越来越多地探测遥远的宇宙，以及附近罕见的低金属度星暴，这两个领域有机会相互补充，并导致对恒星和星系概念的改进。在这里，我们回顾了对大质量恒星为主的恒星群建模的现状，并讨论了它们对解释遥远宇宙的应用和影响。我们的主要发现包括以下内容：▪必须包括双星演化途径才能了解早期星系中的恒星种群。▪ 限制早期星系极端紫外光谱的观测表明，目前的模型是不完整的。目前最好的猜测是需要某种形式的吸积到致密残余物上。▪ 100 米及以上的超大质量恒星的演化和命运⊙可能是充分理解早期星系的关键。