Coevolution of metallicity and star formation in galaxies to z=3.7: II. A theoretical model

Abstract

Recent work suggests that galaxy evolution, and the build-up of stellar mass (M*) over cosmic time, is characterized by changes with redshift of star formation rate (SFR) and oxygen abundance (O/H). In a companion paper, we have compiled a large dataset to study Metallicity Evolution and Galaxy Assembly (MEGA), consisting of roughly 1000 galaxies to z=3.7 with a common O/H calibration. Here we interpret the MEGA scaling relations of M*, SFR, and O/H with an updated version of the model presented by Dayal et al. (2013). This model successfully reproduces the observed O/H ratio of 80,000 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to within 0.05-0.06 dex. By extending the model to the higher redshift MEGA sample, we find that although the specific mass loading of outflows does not change measurably during the evolution, the accretion rate and gas content of galaxies increase significantly with redshift. These two effects can explain, either separately or possibly in tandem, the observed lower metal abundance of high-z galaxies.

13 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (26)

• The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments
• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• Star Formation in AEGIS Field Galaxies since z=1.1 : The Dominance of Gradually Declining Star Formation, and the Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies
• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe
• A Highly Consistent Framework for the Evolution of the Star-Forming "Main Sequence" from z~0-6
• Introducing the Illustris Project: the evolution of galaxy populations across cosmic time
• The Mass-Metallicity Relation at z~2
• Constraining the Low-Mass Slope of the Star Formation Sequence at 0.5<z<2.5
• Combined CO & Dust Scaling Relations of Depletion Time and Molecular Gas Fractions with Cosmic Time, Specific Star Formation Rate and Stellar Mass
• Slow Star Formation in Dense Gas: Evidence and Implications
• Strong Nebular Line Ratios in the Spectra of z~2-3 Star-forming Galaxies: First Results from KBSS-MOSFIRE
• COLD GASS, an IRAM Legacy Survey of Molecular Gas in Massive Galaxies: II. The non-universality of the Molecular Gas Depletion Timescale
• Clues to the Origin of the Mass-Metallicity Relation: Dependence on Star Formation Rate and Galaxy Size
• The Relation Between SFR and Stellar Mass for Galaxies at 3.5 $\le z\le$ 6.5 in CANDELS
• A Turnover in the Galaxy Main Sequence of Star Formation at $M_{\ast }\sim 10^{10}{M}_{\odot }$ for Redshifts $z<1.3$
• Accretion of gas onto nearby spiral galaxies
• A Consistent Study of Metallicity Evolution at 0.8 < z < 2.6
• The Stellar Mass Density at z~6 from Spitzer Imaging of i-drop Galaxies
• ALLSMOG: an APEX Low-redshift Legacy Survey for MOlecular Gas. I - molecular gas scaling relations, and the effect of the CO/H2 conversion factor
• Molecular gas content in strongly-lensed z~1.5-3 star-forming galaxies with low IR luminosities
• On the importance of using appropriate spectral models to derive physical properties of galaxies at 0.7<z<2.8
• The Variation in Molecular Gas Depletion Time among Nearby Galaxies: What are the Main Parameter Dependencies?
• Linked evolution of gas and star formation in galaxies over cosmic history
• The Relationship between Stellar Mass, Gas Metallicity, and Star Formation Rate for Halpha-selected Galaxies at z~0.8 from the NewHalpha Survey
• Metal-poor, Strongly Star-Forming Galaxies in the DEEP2 Survey: The Relationship between Stellar Mass, Temperature-based Metallicity, and Star Formation Rate
• On the properties of the interstellar medium in extremely metal-poor blue compact dwarf galaxies: GMOS-IFU spectroscopy and SDSS photometry of the double-knot galaxy HS 2236+1344

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Understanding Galaxy Evolution through Emission Lines
• The KLEVER Survey: Spatially resolved metallicity maps and gradients in a sample of 1.2 < z < 2.5 lensed galaxies
• The physics of gas phase metallicity gradients in galaxies
• The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS) X. Sub-kpc resolution gas-phase metallicity maps at cosmic noon behind the Hubble Frontier Fields cluster MACS1149.6+2223
• The effects of host galaxy properties on merging compact binaries detectable by LIGO
• Astraeus V: The emergence and evolution of metallicity scaling relations during the Epoch of Reionization
• Intensity and anisotropies of the stochastic Gravitational Wave background from merging compact binaries in galaxies
• Modelling the M*-SFR relation at high redshift: untangling factors driving biases in the intrinsic scatter measurement
• SPICA and the Chemical Evolution of Galaxies: The Rise of Metals and Dust
• Constraints on galactic outflows from the metallicity-stellar mass-SFR relation of EAGLE simulation and SDSS galaxies
• Modelling the host galaxies of binary compact object mergers with observational scaling relations