TY - JOUR
T1 - A Comprehensive Study on the Relation between the Metal Enrichment of Ionized and Atomic Gas in Star-forming Galaxies
AU - Arabsalmani, M.
AU - Garratt-Smithson, L.
AU - Wijers, N.
AU - Schaye, J.
AU - Burkert, A.
AU - Lagos, C. D.P.
AU - Le Floc’h, E.
AU - Obreschkow, D.
AU - Peroux, C.
AU - Schneider, B.
N1 - Funding Information:
M.A. thanks Vianney Lebouteiller, Martin A. Zwaan, and Lise Christensen for helpful discussions. The presented study is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy—EXC-2094—390783311. We acknowledge the Virgo Consortium for making their simulation data available. The EAGLE simulations were performed using the DiRAC-2 facility at Durham, managed by the ICC, and the PRACE facility Curie based in France at TGCC, CEA, Bruyères-le-Châtel. This work was supported by resources provided by the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre with funding from the Australian Government and the Government of Western Australia. D.O. is a recipient of an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT190100083) funded by the Australian Government. N. W. was supported by a CIERA Postdoctoral Fellowship.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2023/7/1
Y1 - 2023/7/1
N2 - We study the relation between the metallicities of ionized and atomic gas in star-forming galaxies at z = 0-3 using the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations. This is done by constructing a dense grid of sight lines through the simulated galaxies and obtaining the star formation rate- and H i column density-weighted metallicities, Z SFR and Z H I, for each sightline as proxies for the metallicities of ionized and atomic gas, respectively. We find Z SFR ≳ Z H I for almost all sight lines, with their difference generally increasing with decreasing metallicity. The stellar masses of galaxies do not have a significant effect on this trend, but the positions of the sight lines with respect to the galaxy centers play an important role: the difference between the two metallicities decreases when moving toward the galaxy centers, and saturates to a minimum value in the central regions of galaxies, irrespective of redshift and stellar mass. This implies that the mixing of the two gas phases is most efficient in the central regions of galaxies where sight lines generally have high column densities of H i. However, a high H i column density alone does not guarantee a small difference between the two metallicities. In galaxy outskirts, the inefficiency of the mixing of star-forming gas with H i seems to dominate over the dilution of heavy elements in H i through mixing with the pristine gas. We find good agreement between the available observational data and the Z SFR-Z H I relation predicted by the EAGLE simulations. Though, observed regions with a nuclear starburst mode of star formation appear not to follow the same relation.
AB - We study the relation between the metallicities of ionized and atomic gas in star-forming galaxies at z = 0-3 using the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations. This is done by constructing a dense grid of sight lines through the simulated galaxies and obtaining the star formation rate- and H i column density-weighted metallicities, Z SFR and Z H I, for each sightline as proxies for the metallicities of ionized and atomic gas, respectively. We find Z SFR ≳ Z H I for almost all sight lines, with their difference generally increasing with decreasing metallicity. The stellar masses of galaxies do not have a significant effect on this trend, but the positions of the sight lines with respect to the galaxy centers play an important role: the difference between the two metallicities decreases when moving toward the galaxy centers, and saturates to a minimum value in the central regions of galaxies, irrespective of redshift and stellar mass. This implies that the mixing of the two gas phases is most efficient in the central regions of galaxies where sight lines generally have high column densities of H i. However, a high H i column density alone does not guarantee a small difference between the two metallicities. In galaxy outskirts, the inefficiency of the mixing of star-forming gas with H i seems to dominate over the dilution of heavy elements in H i through mixing with the pristine gas. We find good agreement between the available observational data and the Z SFR-Z H I relation predicted by the EAGLE simulations. Though, observed regions with a nuclear starburst mode of star formation appear not to follow the same relation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85165723052&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/acd4b7
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/acd4b7
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85165723052
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 952
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 1
M1 - 67
ER -