The interplay between feedback, accretion, transport, and winds in setting gas-phase metal distribution in galaxies
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 528, pp. 2232–2256
Abstract
ABSTRACT The recent decade has seen an exponential growth in spatially resolved metallicity measurements in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies. To first order, these measurements are characterized by the slope of the radial metallicity profile, known as the metallicity gradient. In this work, we model the relative role of star formation feedback, gas transport, cosmic gas accretion, and galactic winds in driving radial metallicity profiles and setting the mass–metallicity gradient relation (MZGR). We include a comprehensive treatment of these processes by including them as sources that supply mass, metals, and energy to marginally unstable galactic discs in pressure and energy balance. We show that both feedback and accretion that can drive turbulence and enhance metal-mixing via diffusion are crucial to reproduce the observed MZGR in local galaxies. Metal transport also contributes to setting metallicity profiles, but it is sensitive to the strength of radial gas flows in galaxies. While the mass loading of galactic winds is important to reproduce the mass–metallicity relation (MZR), we find that metal mass loading is more important to reproducing the MZGR. Specifically, our model predicts preferential metal enrichment of galactic winds in low-mass galaxies. This conclusion is robust against our adopted scaling of the wind mass-loading factor, uncertainties in measured wind metallicities, and systematics due to metallicity calibrations. Overall, we find that at z ∼ 0, galactic winds and metal transport are more important in setting metallicity gradients in low-mass galaxies whereas star formation feedback and gas accretion dominate setting metallicity gradients in massive galaxies.
Authors 8
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Leiden University · Leiden Observatory
Affiliation as printed
Leiden Observatory, Leiden University , PO Box 9513, NL-2300 RA Leiden , the Netherlands
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Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Affiliation as printed
Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Jerusalem 91904 , Israel
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Australian National University · Australian Research Council · ASTRO-3D · ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics
Affiliation as printed
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia
Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Canberra, ACT 2611 , Australia
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Affiliation as printed
Center for Computational Astrophysics, Flatiron Institute , New York, NY 10010 , USA
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Australian National University · Australian Research Council · ASTRO-3D · ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics
Affiliation as printed
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia
Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Canberra, ACT 2611 , Australia
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Space Telescope Science Institute
Affiliation as printed
Space Telescope Science Institute , Baltimore, MD 21218 , USA
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Australian National University · Australian Research Council · ASTRO-3D · ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics
Affiliation as printed
Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) , Australia
Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Canberra, ACT 2611 , Australia
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University of California, Santa Cruz · Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Affiliation as printed
Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem , Jerusalem 91904 , Israel
Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California , Santa Cruz, CA 95064 , USA
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