Chemical evolution models for spiral disks: the Milky Way, M 31, and M 33

Marcon-Uchida, M. M.; Matteuccí, F.; Costa, R. D. D.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/200913933

Cited by 52 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 63 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Marcon-Uchida et al 2010;Stinson et al 2010;Gibson et al 2013). Alternatively, flattened and positive gradients have been interpreted as suggesting an inflow of metal-poor gas to their central regions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A relationship between specific star formation rate and metallicity gradient within z ∼ 1 galaxies from KMOS-HiZELS

Stott¹,

Sobral²,

Swinbank³

et al. 2014

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

107

142

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have observed a sample of typical z ∼ 1 star forming galaxies, selected from the HiZELS survey, with the new KMOS near-infrared, multi-IFU instrument on the VLT, in order to obtain their dynamics and metallicity gradients. The majority of our galaxies have a metallicity gradient consistent with being flat or negative (i.e. higher metallicity cores than outskirts). Intriguingly, we find a trend between metallicity gradient and specific star formation rate (sSFR), such that galaxies with a high sSFR tend to have relatively metal-poor centres, a result which is strengthened when combined with datasets from the literature. This result appears to explain the discrepancies reported between different high redshift studies and varying claims for evolution. From a galaxy evolution perspective, the trend we see would mean that a galaxy's sSFR is governed by the amount of metal poor gas that can be funnelled into its core, triggered either by merging or through efficient accretion. In fact merging may play a significant role as it is the starburst galaxies at all epochs, which have the more positive metallicity gradients. Our results may help to explain the origin of the fundamental metallicity relation, in which galaxies at a fixed mass are observed to have lower metallicities at higher star formation rates, especially if the metallicity is measured in an aperture encompassing only the central regions of the galaxy. Finally, we note that this study demonstrates the power of KMOS as an efficient instrument for large scale resolved galaxy surveys.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Marcon-Uchida, Matteucci & Costa 2010;Stinson et al 2010;Gibson et al 2013). Observational support for this has been claimed, as Jones et al (2013) find a small subset of their z = 2 galaxies that possess significantly steeper negative abundance gradients than local galaxies.…”

mentioning

confidence: 90%

A relationship between specific star formation rate and metallicity gradient within z ∼ 1 galaxies from KMOS-HiZELS

Stott¹,

Sobral²,

Swinbank³

et al. 2014

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

107

142

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Recent detailed chemical evolution models of the Milky Way disk by Marcon-Uchida et al (2010) illustrate how the value of the present-day gradient as reflected by studies of H ii regions is influenced by the threshold density for star formation, i.e., the surface density above which star formation occurs but below which it does not, and the variation of the star formation efficiency, i.e., the ratio of the mass of stars formed to the mass of gas available for forming them per unit time. Their models predict that between 4 and 14 kpc in galactocentric distance, when the star formation efficiency is held constant and the star formation threshold is reduced from 7 to 4 M pc −2 , the predicted oxygen gradient flattens, going from −0.059 to −0.025 dex kpc −1 .…”

Section: Gradient Uncertainty and Theoretical Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Abundances of Galactic Anticenter Planetary Nebulae and the Oxygen Abundance Gradient in the Galactic Disk

Henry

Kwitter

Jaskot

et al. 2010

ApJ

122

150

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We have obtained spectrophotometric observations of 41 anticenter planetary nebulae (PNe) located in the disk of the Milky Way. Electron temperatures and densities, as well as chemical abundances for He, N, O, Ne, S, Cl, and Ar were determined. Incorporating these results into our existing database of PN abundances yielded a sample of 124 well-observed objects with homogeneously determined abundances extending from 0.9 to 21 kpc in galactocentric distance. We performed a detailed regression analysis which accounted for uncertainties in both oxygen abundances and radial distances in order to establish the metallicity gradient across the disk to be 12 + log(O/H) = (9.09 ± 0.05) − (0.058 ± 0.006) × R g , with R g in kpc. While we see some evidence that the gradient steepens at large galactocentric distances, more objects toward the anticenter need to be observed in order to confidently establish the true form of the metallicity gradient. We find no compelling evidence that the gradient differs between Peimbert Types I and II, nor is oxygen abundance related to the vertical distance from the galactic plane. Our gradient agrees well with analogous results for H ii regions but is steeper than the one recently published by Stanghellini & Haywood over a similar range in galactocentric distance. A second analysis using PN distances from a different source implied a flatter gradient, and we suggest that we have reached a confusion limit which can only be resolved with greatly improved distance measurements and an understanding of the natural scatter in oxygen abundances.

show abstract

“…Moreover, the time delay with which the enriched supernova material is coming back into the ISM (∼100 Myr) does not substantially influence the chemical enrichment process. Gas infall is an important ingredient in the build-up of galactic disks and it produces radial gas flows, as shown first by Mayor & Vigroux (1981). In fact, the infalling gas has a lower angular momentum than the circular motions in the disk, and mixing with the gas in the disk induces a net radial inflow.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Effects of the radial inflow of gas and galactic fountains on the chemical evolution of M 31

Spitoni

Matteuccí

Marcon-Uchida

2013

A&A

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Context. Galactic fountains and radial gas flows are very important ingredients for modeling the chemical evolution of galactic disks. Aims. Our aim here is to study the effects of galactic fountains and radial gas flows on the chemical evolution of the disk of Andromeda (M 31) galaxy. Methods. We adopt a ballistic method to study the effects of galactic fountains on the chemical enrichment of the M 31 disk by analyzing the landing coordinate of the fountains and the time delay in the pollution of the interstellar gas. To understand the consequences of radial flows, we adopt a very detailed chemical evolution model. Our aim is to study the formation of abundance gradients along the M 31 disk and also compare our results with the Milky Way. Results. We find that the landing coordinate for the fountains in M 31 is no more than 1 kpc from the starting point, thus producing a negligible effect on the chemical evolution of the disk. We find that the delay time in the enrichment process due to fountains is no longer than 100 Myr, and this timescale also produces insignificant effects on the results. Then, we compute the chemical evolution of the M 31 disk with radial gas flows produced by the infall of extragalactic material and fountains. We find that a moderate inside-out formation of the disk, coupled with radial flows of variable speed, can reproduce the observed gradient very well. We also discuss the effects of other parameters, such as a threshold in the gas density for star formation and efficiency of star formation varying with the galactic radius. Conclusions. We conclude that galactic fountains do not affect the chemical evolution of the M 31 disk. Including radial gas flows with an inside-out formation of the disk produces a very good agreement with observations. On the other hand, if radial flows are not considered, one should assume a threshold in the star formation and variable star formation efficiency, besides the inside-out formation to reproduce the data. We conclude that the most important physical processes in creating disk gradients are the inside-out formation and the radial gas flows. More data on abundance gradients both locally and at high redshift are necessary to confirm this conclusion.

show abstract

Chemical evolution models for spiral disks: the Milky Way, M 31, and M 33

Cited by 52 publications

References 63 publications

A relationship between specific star formation rate and metallicity gradient within z ∼ 1 galaxies from KMOS-HiZELS

A relationship between specific star formation rate and metallicity gradient within z ∼ 1 galaxies from KMOS-HiZELS

Abundances of Galactic Anticenter Planetary Nebulae and the Oxygen Abundance Gradient in the Galactic Disk

Effects of the radial inflow of gas and galactic fountains on the chemical evolution of M 31

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About