New analytical solutions for chemical evolution models: characterizing the population of star-forming and passive galaxies

Spitoni, E.; Vincenzo, Fiorenzo; Matteuccí, F.

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201629745

Cited by 63 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…However, it should be noted that a chemical evolution model with a mass-dependent SFE alone is not able to reproduce both the MZRgas and MZRstar simultaneously. Spitoni et al (2017) investigated the MZRstar of starforming and passive galaxies as derived by Peng et al (2015) using an analytical chemical evolution model. The authors obtained predictions for gas mass, total mass, and metallicity of a galaxy by solving a set of differential equations for these quantities.…”

Section: Models In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The mass–metallicity relations for gas and stars in star-forming galaxies: strong outflow versus variable IMF

Lian

Thomas

Maraston

et al. 2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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We investigate the mass-metallicity relations for the gaseous (MZR gas ) and stellar components (MZR star ) of local star-forming galaxies based on a representative sample from SDSS DR12. The mass-weighted average stellar metallicities are systematically lower than the gas metallicities. This difference in metallicity increases toward galaxies with lower masses and reaches 0.4-0.8 dex at 10 9 M (depending on the gas metallicity calibration). As a result, the MZR star is much steeper than the MZR gas . The much lower metallicities in stars compared to the gas in low mass galaxies implies dramatic metallicity evolution with suppressed metal enrichment at early times. The aim of this paper is to explain the observed large difference in gas and stellar metallicity and to infer the origin of the mass-metallicity relations. To this end we develop a galactic chemical evolution model accounting for star formation, gas inflow and outflow. By combining the observed mass-metallicity relation for both gas and stellar components to constrain the models, we find that only two scenarios are able to reproduce the observations. Either strong metal outflow or a steep IMF slope at early epochs of galaxy evolution is needed. Based on these two scenarios, for the first time we successfully reproduce the observed MZR gas and MZR star simultaneously, together with other independent observational constraints in the local universe. Our model also naturally reproduces the flattening of the MZR gas at the high mass end leaving the MZR star intact, as seen in observational data.

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Section: Models In the Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

The mass–metallicity relations for gas and stars in star-forming galaxies: strong outflow versus variable IMF

Lian

Thomas

Maraston

et al. 2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…The metallicity difference between passive and starforming galaxies found by P15 was also investigated by Spitoni et al (2017) in the context of their exponentially declining accretion scenario. They interpret the difference in terms of a faster decline of the accretion, which is qualitatively very similar to the more abrupt halt of accretion adopted by P15, hence independently confirming the need of a starvation phase to explain the metallicity difference between the two galaxy populations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Both starvation and outflows drive galaxy quenching

Trussler

Maiolino

Maraston

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

154

164

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Star-forming galaxies can in principle be transformed into passive systems by a multitude of processes that quench star formation, such as the halting of gas accretion (starvation) or the rapid removal of gas in AGN-driven outflows. However, it remains unclear which processes are the most significant, primary drivers of the SF-passive bimodality. We address this key issue in galaxy evolution by studying the chemical properties of 80 000 local galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7. In order to distinguish between different quenching mechanisms, we analyse the stellar metallicities of star-forming, green valley, and passive galaxies. We find that the significant difference in stellar metallicity between passive galaxies and their star-forming progenitors implies that for galaxies at all masses, quenching must have involved an extended phase of starvation. However, some form of gas ejection also has to be introduced into our models to best match the observed properties of local passive galaxies, indicating that, while starvation is likely to be the prerequisite for quenching, it is the combination of starvation and outflows that is responsible for quenching the majority of galaxies. Closed-box models indicate that the duration of the quenching phase is 2–3 Gyr, with an e-folding time of 2–4 Gyr, after which further star formation is prevented by an ejective/heating mode. Alternatively, leaky-box models find a longer duration for the quenching phase of 5–7 Gyr and an e-folding time of ∼1 Gyr, with outflows becoming increasingly important with decreasing stellar mass. Finally, our analysis of local green valley galaxies indicates that quenching is slower in the local Universe than at high redshift.

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“…This not only increases the parameter space but at the same time makes the models computationally more expensive, in practice prohibiting a full parameter exploration. This places GCE's in between analytical (e.g., Weinberg et al 2017;Spitoni et al 2017) models (with strong simplifying assumption) and hydrodynamical simulations including detailed chemical enrichment as well as galactic dynamics (e.g., Stinson et al 2006;Few et al 2012;Grand et al 2015). Because of the complexity of those simulations usually only a limited parameter space or aspect of chemical evolution can be studied (e.g., Jiménez et al 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chempy: A flexible chemical evolution model for abundance fitting

Rybizki

Just

Rix

2017

A&A

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Elemental abundances of stars are the result of the complex enrichment history of their galaxy. Interpretation of observed abundances requires flexible modeling tools to explore and quantify the information about Galactic chemical evolution (GCE) stored in such data. Here we present Chempy, a newly developed code for GCE modeling, representing a parametrized open one-zone model within a Bayesian framework. A Chempy model is specified by a set of five to ten parameters that describe the effective galaxy evolution along with the stellar and star-formation physics: for example, the star-formation history (SFH), the feedback efficiency, the stellar initial mass function (IMF), and the incidence of supernova of type Ia (SN Ia). Unlike established approaches, Chempy can sample the posterior probability distribution in the full model parameter space and test data-model matches for different nucleosynthetic yield sets. It is essentially a chemical evolution fitting tool. We straightforwardly extend Chempy to a multi-zone scheme. As an illustrative application, we show that interesting parameter constraints result from only the ages and elemental abundances of the Sun, Arcturus, and the present-day interstellar medium (ISM). For the first time, we use such information to infer the IMF parameter via GCE modeling, where we properly marginalize over nuisance parameters and account for different yield sets. We find that 11.6 +2.1 −1.6 % of the IMF explodes as core-collapse supernova (CC-SN), compatible with Salpeter (1955, ApJ, 121, 161). We also constrain the incidence of SN Ia per 10 3 M to 0.5−1.4. At the same time, this Chempy application shows persistent discrepancies between predicted and observed abundances for some elements, irrespective of the chosen yield set. These cannot be remedied by any variations of Chempy's parameters and could be an indication of missing nucleosynthetic channels. Chempy could be a powerful tool to confront predictions from stellar nucleosynthesis with far more complex abundance data sets and to refine the physical processes governing the chemical evolution of stellar systems.

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New analytical solutions for chemical evolution models: characterizing the population of star-forming and passive galaxies

Cited by 63 publications

References 53 publications

The mass–metallicity relations for gas and stars in star-forming galaxies: strong outflow versus variable IMF

The mass–metallicity relations for gas and stars in star-forming galaxies: strong outflow versus variable IMF

Both starvation and outflows drive galaxy quenching

Chempy: A flexible chemical evolution model for abundance fitting

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