COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATIONS OF INTERGALACTIC MEDIUM EVOLUTION. I. TEST OF THE SUBGRID CHEMICAL ENRICHMENT MODEL
- Département de physique, de Génie Physique et d'Optique, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V 0A6 (Canada)
We present a one-zone galactic chemical enrichment model that takes into account the contribution of stellar winds from massive stars under the effect of rotation, Type II supernovae, hypernovae, stellar winds from low- and intermediate-mass stars, and Type Ia supernovae. This enrichment model will be implemented in a galactic model designed to be used as a subgrid treatment for galaxy evolution and outflow generation in large-scale cosmological simulations, in order to study the evolution of the intergalactic medium. We test our enrichment prescription by comparing its predictions with the metallicity distribution function and the abundance patterns of 14 chemical elements observed in the Milky Way stars. To do so, we combine the effect of many stellar populations created from the star formation history of the Galaxy in the solar neighborhood. For each stellar population, we keep track of its specific mass, initial metallicity, and age. We follow the time evolution of every population in order to respect the time delay between the various stellar phases. Our model is able to reproduce the observed abundances of C, O, Na, Mg, Al, S, and Ca. For Si, Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, and Zn, the fits are still reasonable, but improvements are needed. We marginally reproduce the nitrogen abundance in very low metallicity stars. Overall, our results are consistent with the predicted abundance ratios seen in previous studies of the enrichment history of the Milky Way. We have demonstrated that our semi-analytic one-zone model, which cannot deal with spatial information such as the metallicity gradient, can nevertheless successfully reproduce the global Galactic enrichment evolution obtained by more complex models, at a fraction of the computational cost. This model is therefore suitable for a subgrid treatment of chemical enrichment in large-scale cosmological simulations.
- OSTI ID:
- 22270609
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 777, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
TRACING THE EVOLUTION OF HIGH-REDSHIFT GALAXIES USING STELLAR ABUNDANCES
EXTREMELY METAL-POOR STARS AND A HIERARCHICAL CHEMICAL EVOLUTION MODEL