The evolution of the oxygen abundance gradients in star-forming galaxies in the EAGLE simulations
| العنوان: | The evolution of the oxygen abundance gradients in star-forming galaxies in the EAGLE simulations |
|---|---|
| المؤلفون: | Patricia B Tissera, Yetli Rosas-Guevara, Emanuel Sillero, Susana E Pedrosa, Tom Theuns, Lucas Bignone |
| المصدر: | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2022, Vol.511(2), pp.1667-1684 [Peer Reviewed Journal] |
| سنة النشر: | 2021 |
| مصطلحات موضوعية: | Space and Planetary Science, Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA), FOS: Physical sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics, Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies, Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics |
| الوصف: | We analyse the evolution of the oxygen abundance gradient of star-forming galaxies with stellar mass Mstar > 10^9 Mo in the EAGK simulation over the redshift range z=[0, 2.5]. We find that the median metallicity gradient of the simulated galaxies is close to zero at all z, whereas the scatter around the median increases with z. The metallicity gradients of individual galaxies can evolve from strong to weak and vice-versa, since mostly low-metallicity gas accretes onto the galaxy, resulting in enhanced star formation and ejection of metal enriched gas by energy feedback. Such episodes of enhanced accretion, mainly dominated by major mergers, are more common at higher z, and hence contribute to increasing the diversity of gradients. For galaxies with negative metallicity gradients, we find a redshift evolution of ~ -0.03 dex/kpc/��z$. A positive mass dependence is found at z< 0.5, which becomes slightly stronger for higher redshifts and, mainly, for Mstar < 10^9.5 Mo. Only galaxies with negative metallicity gradients define a correlation with galaxy size, consistent with an inside-out formation scenario. Our findings suggest that major mergers and/or significant gas accretion can drive strong negative or positive metallicity gradients. The first ones are preferentially associated with disc-dominated galaxies, and the second ones with dispersion-dominated systems. The comparison with forthcoming observations at high redshift will allow a better understanding of the potential role of metallicity gradients as a chemical probe of galaxy formation. 19 pages, 12 figures. Accepted MNRAS |
| وصف الملف: | application/pdf |
| اللغة: | English |
| URL الوصول: | https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_dedup___::236d47eb0e1190b90b06a5a0f8359a0e http://arxiv.org/abs/2112.06553 |
| حقوق: | OPEN |
| رقم الأكسشن: | edsair.doi.dedup.....236d47eb0e1190b90b06a5a0f8359a0e |
| قاعدة البيانات: | OpenAIRE |
| الوصف غير متاح. |