Chemical Evolution of M31

Abstract

We review chemical evolution models developed for M31 as well as the abundance determinations available for this galaxy. Then we present a recent chemical evolution model for M31 including radial gas flows and galactic fountains along the disk, as well as a model for the bulge. Our models are predicting the evolution of the abundances of several chemical species such as H, He, C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ca and Fe. From comparison between model predictions and observations we can derive some constraints on the evolution of the disk and the bulge of M31. We reach the conclusions that Andromeda must have evolved faster than the Milky Way and inside-out, and that its bulge formed much faster than the disk on a timescale $\le$ 0.5 Gyr. Finally, we present a study where we apply the model developed for the disk of M31 in order to study the probability of finding galactic habitable zones in this galaxy.

To be published in:"Lessons from the Local Group: A Conference in Honour of David Block and Bruce Elmegreen" Editors: Prof. Dr. Kenneth Freeman, Dr. Bruce Elmegreen, Prof. Dr. David Block, Matthew Woolway, Springer

References in corpus (8)

• Keck HIRES Spectroscopy of Extragalactic HII Regions: C and O Abundances from Recombination Lines
• The Metal-Poor Halo of the Andromeda Spiral Galaxy (M31)
• A Wide-field High Resolution HI Mosaic of Messier 31: I. Opaque Atomic Gas and Star Formation Rate Density
• Abundance gradients in spiral disks: is the gradient inversion at high redshift real?
• Testing the universal stellar IMF on the metallicity distribution in the bulges of the Milky Way and M31
• The galactic habitable zone of the Milky Way and M31 from chemical evolution models with gas radial flows
• The Effects of radial inflow of gas and galactic fountains on the chemical evolution of M31
• Star formation efficiency and flattened gradients in M31