The Luminosity-Metallicity Relation, Effective Yields, and Metal Loss in Spiral and Irregular Galaxies

By D. Garnett. 2002

283 citations recorded by the source corpus.

I present results on the correlation between galaxy mass, luminosity, and metallicity for a sample of spiral and irregular galaxies having well-measured abundance profiles, distances, and rotation speeds. Additional data for low surface brightness galaxies from the literature are also included for comparison. These data are combined to study the metallicity-luminosity and metallicity-rotation speed correlations for spiral and irregular galaxies. The metallicity-luminosity correlation shows its familiar form for these galaxies, a roughly uniform change in the average present-day O/H abundance of about a factor of 100 over 11 mag in B luminosity. However, the O/H-Vrot relation shows a change in slope at a rotation speed of about 125 km s-1. At faster Vrot, there appears to be no relation between average metallicity and rotation speed. At lower Vrot, the metallicity correlates with rotation speed. This change in behavior could be the result of increasing loss of metals from the smaller galaxies in supernova-driven winds. This idea is tested by looking at the variation in effective yield, derived from observed abundances and gas fractions assuming closed box chemical evolution. The effective yields derived for spiral and irregular galaxies increase by a factor of 10-20 from Vrot ≈ 5 to 300 km s-1, asymptotically increasing to approximately constant yeff for Vrot ≳ 150 km s-1. The trend suggests that galaxies with Vrot ≲ 100-150 km s-1 may lose a large fraction of their supernova ejecta, while galaxies above this value tend to retain metals.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/1e013cca4847b55b92e9fb2be675adfb929dd30a

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Citations in the corpus

Ionized gas outflows and global kinematics of low-z luminous star-forming galaxies (2014, background): “…and it has been invoked in the past to explain both the mass-metallicity relation and radial metallicity gradients in elliptical galaxies and galaxy bulges (e.g., Bender, Burstein & Faber 1993; Franx & Illingworth 1990; Heckman et al. 2000; Martin 1999; Garnett 2002; Tremonti et al. 2004).”
A BUDGET AND ACCOUNTING OF METALS AT z ∼ 0: RESULTS FROM THE COS-HALOS SURVEY (2013, unknown): “(9) Using a similar approach, Papastergis et al. (2012) find logFg = log(1.366MHI/M⋆) = −0.43 logM⋆ + 3.89, (10) by fitting a power law to data compiled from opticallyselected galaxy samples (Swaters & Balcells 2002; Garnett 2002; Noordermeer et al. 2005; Zhang et al. 2009).”
The role of cold gas and environment on the stellar mass-metallicity relation of nearby galaxies (2012, methodology): “…of a relationship between luminosity and metallicity by Lequeux et al. (1979), numerous studies have confirmed the existence of a luminosity-metallicity or stellar massmetallicity (hereafter M-Z) relation (see e.g. Rubin et al. 1984; Skillman et al. 1989; Vila-Costas & Edmunds 1992; Garnett 2002).”
A characteristic oxygen abundance gradient in galaxy disks unveiled with CALIFA (2013, background): “…1989; Vila-Costas & Edmunds 1992; Zaritsky et al. 1994; Tremonti et al. 2004); (ii) effective yield vs. luminosity and circular velocity relations (Garnett 2002); (iii) abundance gradients and the effective radius of disks (Diaz 1989) systematic differences in the gasphase abundance gradients…”
ON THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN STAR FORMATION AND FEEDBACK IN GALAXY FORMATION SIMULATIONS (2014, unknown): “100kms−1, Garnett 2002).”
Dark halo response and the stellar initial mass function in early-type and late-type galaxies (2010, methodology): “All data sets include atomic hydrogen, Garnett (2002) and Leroy et al. (2008) also include molecular hydrogen.”
De re metallica: the cosmic chemical evolution of galaxies (2018, methodology): “The effective yields are a way to measure the influence of infall and outflows on the chemical evolution of a galaxy (Matteucci, 2001; Garnett, 2002; Dalcanton, 2007).”
Physical properties and environments of nearby galaxies (2009, background): “Estimates of the effective yield by Tremonti et al. (2004) and more direct measurements by Garnett (2002) and Pilyugin, Vı́lchez & Contini (2004) indicate that yeff increases with circular velocity and stellar mass. Assuming that yt is not a strong function of galaxy mass (as could be the case if…”
DIRECT OXYGEN ABUNDANCES FOR LOW-LUMINOSITY LVL GALAXIES (2012, background): “Some studies argue for the importance of gas infall and outflows (e.g., Garnett 2002), whereas others point to star formation efficiencies (e.g., Lequeux et al. 1979; Brooks et al. 2007), and variations in initial mass functions (e.g., Köppen et al. 2007).”
LSD: Lyman-break galaxies Stellar populations and Dynamics – I. Mass, metallicity and gas at z∼ 3.1 (2009, background): “The expected effect is not large, up to a factor of 2, but in principle measurable with our data (Woosley & Weaver 1995; Marigo 2001; Garnett 2002).”
Metallicity Effects on Mid-Infrared Colors and the 8 μm PAH Emission in Galaxies (2005, unknown): “…(18) Bergvall & Östlin 2002; (19) Kobulnicky et al. 1999; (20) Guseva et al. 2000; (21) Heckman et al. 1998; (22) Lisenfeld & Ferrara 1998; (23) Garnett 2002; (24) Storchi-Bergmann et al. 1994; (25) J. Moustakas 2004, private communication; (26) Houck et al. 2004b; (27) C. W. Engelbracht et…”
The origin of the galaxy mass-metallicity relation and implications for galactic outflows (2007, background): “On the other hand, it bears a striking resemblance to the observed trend at low redshift (Garnett 2002; Tremonti et al. 2004; Pilyugin et al. 2004).”
The Mass-Metallicity Relation at z≳2 (2006, background): “…813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 Skillman et al. 1989; Zaritsky et al. 1994; Garnett et al. 1997; Lamareille et al. 2004; Salzer et al. 2005, to name only a few), though others have studied correlations between metallicity and rotational velocity (Zaritsky et al. 1994; Garnett 2002).”
ABSORPTION-LINE PROBES OF THE PREVALENCE AND PROPERTIES OF OUTFLOWS IN PRESENT-DAY STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2010, background): “The massmetallicity and effective yield relations observed in local galaxies suggest that galactic winds transport highly metalenriched gas out of galaxies and into the IGM (e.g., Garnett 2002; Tremonti et al. 2004; Dalcanton 2007).”
THE MASS–METALLICITY AND LUMINOSITY–METALLICITY RELATIONS FROM DEEP2 AT z ∼ 0.8 (2010, methodology): “B-band Luminosity Evolution In many previous studies, luminosity has been taken as a proxy for mass (Kobulnicky & Koo 2000; Pettini et al. 2001; Garnett 2002; Kobulnicky et al. 2003; Kobulnicky & Kewley 2004; Maier et al. 2004; Shapley et al. 2004, 2005).”
Metallicity gradients in local field star-forming galaxies: insights on inflows, outflows, and the coevolution of gas, stars and metals (2015, background): “Further investigations solidified the luminositymetallicity correlation in nearby disk galaxies (Bothun et al. 1984; Wyse & Silk 1985; Skillman et al. 1989; Vila-Costas & Edmunds 1992; Zaritsky et al. 1994; Garnett 2002).”
Observed Fractions of Core-Collapse Supernova Types and Initial Masses of their Single and Binary Progenitor Stars (2010, background): “The galaxies included in the LOSS survey span a range of luminosity, with most of the CCSN hosts corresponding roughly to metallicities of 0.5–2 Z (Garnett 2002; the LOSS galaxy sample spans a range of MK from about −20 to −26 mag, but most of the CCSN hosts are in the range of −22 to −25 mag; see…”
The effect of clouds on the dynamical and chemical evolution of gas-rich dwarf galaxies (2000, background): “Although models of DG winds show strikingly that the low effective yield causes the low metallicity in dIrrs (Garnett 2002), nevertheless, it is obvious that a vertically extended gas disk and/or an enveloping gas reservoir is able to hamper the outflow of hot metal-rich supernova gas.”
DWARF GALAXY STARBURST STATISTICS IN THE LOCAL VOLUME (2008, background): “The stellar winds and supernovae produced by starbursts are argued to drive metal-enriched winds, which may escape the halos of lowmass galaxies and pollute the intergalactic medium (IGM; e.g., Marlowe et al. 1995; Mac Low & Ferrara 1999; Martin 1999; Garnett 2002).”
GALAXY MERGERS AND THE MASS–METALLICITY RELATION: EVIDENCE FOR NUCLEAR METAL DILUTION AND FLATTENED GRADIENTS FROM NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS (2010, background): “Low-mass galaxies contain fewer heavy elements than high-mass galaxies, due to differing star formation histories combined with the action of gas inflows and outflows (Garnett 2002; Tremonti et al. 2004).”