METALLICITY GRADIENTS AND GAS FLOWS IN GALAXY PAIRS

By Lisa J. Kewley, D. Rupke, H. Jabran Zahid, Margaret J. Geller, E. Barton. 2010

161 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present the first systematic investigation into the metallicity gradients in galaxy close pairs. We determine the metallicity gradients for eight galaxies in close pairs using H ii region metallicities obtained with high signal-to-noise multi-slit observations with the Keck LRIS Spectrograph. We show that the metallicity gradients in close pairs are significantly shallower than gradients in isolated spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way, M83, and M101. These observations provide the first solid evidence that metallicity gradients in interacting galaxies are systematically different from metallicity gradients in isolated spiral galaxies. Our results suggest that there is a strong relationship between metallicity gradients and the gas dynamics in galaxy interactions and mergers.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7cc3326a51aa81bc4117c41e2c18e1c8ac7d40d0

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. R. Dav'e
4. Thomas J. Cox
5. Volker Springel
6. T. Naab
7. R. Somerville
8. A. Dekel

In Instrumentation

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. R. Dav'e
4. Thomas J. Cox
5. T. Naab
6. A. Dekel
7. Volker Springel
8. R. Somerville

Citations in the corpus

• GAS-PHASE OXYGEN GRADIENTS IN STRONGLY INTERACTING GALAXIES. I. EARLY-STAGE INTERACTIONS (2010, methodology): “For a subset of the current sample, we used the B-band L − Z relation in Kewley et al. (2010) and found no correlation between gradients and L − Z offsets, but were limited by small sample size and the fact that B-band luminosity is sensitive to ongoing star formation and extinction effects.”
• Star formation in galaxy mergers with realistic models of stellar feedback and the interstellar medium (2012, background): “…and higher order kinematics (Cox et al. 2006b), kinematically decoupled components (Hoffman et al. 2009, 2010), stellar population gradients (Kewley et al. 2010; Soto & Martin 2010; Torrey et al. 2012a), and growth of the central BH (Di Matteo, Springel & Hernquist 2005; Hopkins et al.…”
• THE METALLICITY EVOLUTION OF INTERACTING GALAXIES (2011, background): “Simulations of merger-driven inflows of gas naturally predict a flattening of the initial metallicity gradient (Perez et al. 2006; Rupke et al. 2010a; Perez et al. 2011), which has now been observed in a number of colliding systems (Kewley et al. 2010; Rupke et al. 2010b).”
• Metallicity gradients in disks - Do galaxies form inside-out? (2012, methodology): “In Kewley et al. (2010) close galaxy pairs were found to have systematically shallower gradients (typically, −0.021 dex/kpc).”
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey – V. Tracing changes in star formation rate and metallicity out to separations of 80 kpc (2012, background): “C O ] 1 9 Ju l 2 01 2008) and in a flattening of the standard metallicity gradient present in spiral galaxies (Rupke et al. 2010b; Kewley et al. 2010; Perez et al. 2011).”
• The impact of gas inflows on star formation rates and metallicities in barred galaxies (2011, background): “…ic.oup.com /m nras/article-abstract/416/3/2182/963138 by guest on 11 D ecem ber 2018 lower than in galaxies with no close companion (Kewley et al 2006; Ellison et al. 2008a; Michel-Dansac et al. 2008), and that abundance gradients are flatter (Kewley et al. 2010; Rupke, Kewley & Chien 2010).”
• Progenitor mass constraints for core-collapse supernovae from correlations with host galaxy star formation⋆ (2012, background): “(b) Habergham et al. (2010) (also see Habergham et al. 2012; these studies used the same sample we present here) showed that the centralization of SNIbc is dominated by SNe occurring within disturbed galaxies, where one observes shallower, if any, metallicity gradients (Kewley et al. 2010).”
• THE MASS–METALLICITY RELATION WITH THE DIRECT METHOD ON STACKED SPECTRA OF SDSS GALAXIES (2012, background): “Major mergers drive in considerable amounts of low metallicity gas from large radii, which dilutes the metallicity of the galaxy and triggers vigorous star formation (e.g., Kewley et al. 2006, 2010; Torrey et al. 2012).”
• Metallicity gradients in local field star-forming galaxies: insights on inflows, outflows, and the coevolution of gas, stars and metals (2015, background): “Gas inflows triggeredby mergers and inflows of pristine gas from the intergalactic mediumcould also dilute the metallicity of a galaxy (e.g.Kewley et al. 2006a; Rupke et al. 2008; Kewley et al. 2010; Rupke et al. 2010a,b).”
• Towards a more realistic population of bright spiral galaxies in cosmological simulations (2013, background): “Disk galaxies have steeper gradients than ellipticals and than interacting disks (Kewley et al. 2010).”
• THEORETICAL EVOLUTION OF OPTICAL STRONG LINES ACROSS COSMIC TIME (2013, background): “Flat metallicity gradients can be produced by large-scale gas flows triggered by galaxy interactions (Kewley et al. 2006a, 2010; Rupke et al. 2010b; Rich et al. 2012).”
• A characteristic oxygen abundance gradient in galaxy disks unveiled with CALIFA (2013, background): “For a spiral galaxy with a pre-existing metallicity gradient, gas inflow flattens the gradient by diluting the higher abundance gas in the central regions with the lower abundance gas from the outer parts (Rupke et al. 2010a,b; Kewley et al. 2010).”
• THE MASS–METALLICITY AND LUMINOSITY–METALLICITY RELATIONS FROM DEEP2 AT z ∼ 0.8 (2010, background): “Rather, they are modulated by inflow of unenriched gas (e.g., Kewley et al. 2010) and a complex ”feedback” mechanism where supernovae and stellar winds influence the ISM by inducing outflows of gas into the intergalactic medium (IGM) and regulating star formation through reheating (Larson 1974;…”
• NEW STRONG-LINE ABUNDANCE DIAGNOSTICS FOR H ii REGIONS: EFFECTS OF κ-DISTRIBUTED ELECTRON ENERGIES AND NEW ATOMIC DATA (2013, background): “…maintained (Bothun et al. 1984; Wyse & Silk 1985; Skillman et al. 1989; Vila-Costas & Edmunds 1992; Zaritsky et al. 1994; van Zee et al. 1998), and discover how abundance gradients can be removed in galaxy interactions (Kewley et al. 2010; Rupke et al. 2010; Torrey et al. 2012; Rich et al. 2012).”
• The SINS/zC-SINF Survey of z ∼ 2 Galaxy Kinematics: SINFONI Adaptive Optics–assisted Data and Kiloparsec-scale Emission-line Properties (2018, result): “By analogy with results in nearby SFGs (e.g. Chien et al. 2007; Kewley et al. 2006, 2010; Rupke et al. 2010; Rich et al. 2012), and in line with predictions from theoretical models and simulations (e.g., Rahimi et al. 2011; Kobayashi & Nakasato 2011; Few et al. 2012; Pilkington et al. 2012; Torrey…”
• GALAXY-WIDE SHOCKS IN LATE-MERGER STAGE LUMINOUS INFRARED GALAXIES (2011, result): “There is no evidence of a metallicity gradient in the [NII]/H α ratio map, which is in agreement with recent work on the flattening of metallicity gradients in merging systems by Rupke et al. (2010a,b); Kewley et al. (2010).”
• SDSS IV MaNGA – metallicity and nitrogen abundance gradients in local galaxies (2017, background): “(iv) Interacting and merging galaxies are excluded since both observations and simulations confirm that interacting and merging galaxies have systematically flatter metallicity gradients due to gas mixing (Kewley et al. 2010; Rich et al. 2012).”