The gas metallicity gradient and the star formation activity of disc galaxies
No hay miniatura disponible
Archivos
Fecha
2016-03
Profesor/a Guía
Facultad/escuela
Idioma
en
Título de la revista
ISSN de la revista
Título del volumen
Editor
Oxford University Press
Nombre de Curso
Licencia CC
Licencia CC
Resumen
We study oxygen abundance profiles of the gaseous disc components in simulated galaxies
in a hierarchical universe. We analyse the disc metallicity gradients in relation to the stellar
masses and star formation rates of the simulated galaxies. We find a trend that galaxies with
low stellar masses have steeper metallicity gradients than galaxies with high stellar masses
at z ∼ 0. We also detect that the gas-phase metallicity slopes and the specific star formation
rate (sSFR) of our simulated disc galaxies are consistent with recently reported observations
at z ∼ 0. Simulated galaxies with high stellar masses reproduce the observed relationship at
all analysed red shifts and have an increasing contribution of discs with positive metallicity
slopes with increasing red shift. Simulated galaxies with low stellar masses have a larger
fraction of negative metallicity gradients with increasing red shift. Simulated galaxies with
positive or very negative metallicity slopes exhibit disturbed morphologies and/or have a close
neighbour. We analyse the evolution of the slope of the oxygen profile and sSFR for a gas rich galaxy–galaxy encounter, finding that this kind of event could generate either positive or
negative gas-phase oxygen profiles depending on their state of evolution. Our results support
claims that the determination of reliable metallicity gradients as a function of red shift is a key
piece of information in understanding galaxy formation and setting constraints on the subgrid
physics.
Notas
Indexación: Scopus.
Palabras clave
Galaxies: Abundances, Galaxies: Evolution, Galaxy: Formation
Citación
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 456, Issue 3, Pages 2982 - 2992. 1 March 2016
DOI
10.1093/mnras/stv2736