Similar star formation rate and metallicity evolution timescales drive the fundamental metallicity relation

Abstract

The fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) is a postulated correlation between galaxy stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR), and gas-phase metallicity. At its core, this relation posits that offsets from the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) at a fixed stellar mass are correlated with galactic SFR. In this Letter, we quantify the timescale with which galactic SFRs and metallicities evolve using hydrodynamical simulations. We find that Illustris and IllustrisTNG predict that galaxy offsets from the star formation main sequence and MZR evolve over similar timescales, are often anti-correlated in their evolution, evolve with the halo dynamical time, and produce a pronounced FMR. In fact, for a FMR to exist, the metallicity and SFR must evolve in an anti-correlated sense which requires that they evolve with similar time variability. In contrast to Illustris and IllustrisTNG, we speculate that the SFR and metallicity evolution tracks may become decoupled in galaxy formation models dominated by globally-bursty SFR histories, which could weaken the FMR residual correlation strength. This opens the possibility of discriminating between bursty and non-bursty feedback models based on the strength and persistence of the FMR -- especially at high redshift.

5 pages; submitted to MNRAS Letters; comments welcome. The IllustrisTNG project website can be found at http://www.tng-project.org/

References in corpus (10)

• Simulating galaxy formation with black hole driven thermal and kinetic feedback
• Clues to the Origin of the Mass-Metallicity Relation: Dependence on Star Formation Rate and Galaxy Size
• The Universal Relation of Galactic Chemical Evolution: The Origin of the Mass-Metallicity Relation
• Star formation is boosted (and quenched) from the inside out: radial star formation profiles from MaNGA
• MUFASA: Galaxy star formation, gas, and metal properties across cosmic time
• A Critical Look at the Mass-Metallicity-SFR Relation in the Local Universe. I. An Improved Analysis Framework and Confounding Systematics
• The uniformity and time-invariance of the intra-cluster metal distribution in galaxy clusters from the IllustrisTNG simulations
• A relationship between specific star formation rate and metallicity gradient within z=1 galaxies from KMOS-HiZELS
• Separate ways: The Mass-Metallicity Relation does not strongly correlate with Star Formation Rate in SDSS-IV MaNGA galaxies
• The role of atomic hydrogen in regulating the scatter of the mass-metallicity relation

Cited by in corpus (78)

• De Re Metallica: The cosmic chemical evolution of galaxies
• How to Measure Galaxy Star Formation Histories II: Nonparametric Models
• The Mass-Metallicity and the Fundamental Metallicity Relation revisited on a fully Te-based abundance scale for galaxies
• The star-formation activity of IllustrisTNG galaxies: main sequence, UVJ diagram, quenched fractions, and systematics
• The evolution of the mass-metallicity relation in IllustrisTNG
• Baryons in the CosmicWeb of IllustrisTNG - I: Gas in Knots, Filaments, Sheets and Voids
• The MOSDEF Survey: Direct-Method Metallicities and ISM Conditions at $z\sim 1.5-3.5$
• Both starvation and outflows drive galaxy quenching
• Quenched fractions in the IllustrisTNG simulations: the roles of AGN feedback, environment, and pre-processing
• Quenched fractions in the IllustrisTNG simulations: comparison with observations and other theoretical models
• Non-parametric Star Formation History Reconstruction with Gaussian Processes I: Counting Major Episodes of Star Formation
• Jellyfish galaxies with the IllustrisTNG simulations: I. Gas-stripping phenomena in the full cosmological context
• The VLA-COSMOS 3 GHz Large Project: Evolution of specific star formation rates out to $z\sim 5$
• Stochastic modelling of star-formation histories II: star-formation variability from molecular clouds and gas inflow
• Atomic and molecular gas in IllustrisTNG galaxies at low redshift
• Modeling the atomic-to-molecular transition in cosmological simulations of galaxy formation
• Simulating galactic dust grain evolution on a moving mesh
• The Diversity and Variability of Star Formation Histories in Models of Galaxy Evolution
• Stochastic modeling of star-formation histories I: the scatter of the star-forming main sequence
• Fundamental metallicity relation in CALIFA, SDSS-IV MaNGA and high-z galaxies
• The JWST-PRIMAL Legacy Survey. A JWST/NIRSpec reference sample for the physical properties and Lyman-$\alpha$ absorption and emission of $\sim 500$ galaxies at $z=5.5-13.4$
• Gas-phase metallicity gradients of TNG50 star-forming galaxies
• A kiloparsec view of a typical star-forming galaxy when the Universe was ~1 Gyr old. Part I. Outflow, halo, and interstellar medium properties
• Linking galaxy structural properties and star formation activity to black hole activity with IllustrisTNG
• Merger-Induced Metallicity Dilution in Cosmological Galaxy Formation Simulations
• Interacting galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulations -- I: Triggered star formation in a cosmological context
• CLEAR I: Ages and Metallicities of Quiescent Galaxies at $1.0<\mathbf{z}<1.8$ Derived from Deep Hubble Space Telescope Grism Data
• First results from SMAUG: Uncovering the Origin of the Multiphase Circumgalactic Medium with a Comparative Analysis of Idealized and Cosmological Simulations
• Tracing Outflowing Metals in Simulations of Dwarf and Spiral Galaxies
• The metallicity's fundamental dependence on both local and global galactic quantities
• IllustrisTNG in the HSC-SSP: image data release and the major role of mini mergers as drivers of asymmetry and star formation
• The SFR-M${}_{\ast }$ Correlation Extends to Low Mass at High Redshift
• Molecular gas and dust properties of galaxies from the Great Observatories All-sky LIRG Survey
• Evolution of Galaxy Star Formation and Metallicity: Impact on Double Compact Objects Mergers
• Early-type galaxy density profiles from IllustrisTNG: I. Galaxy correlations and the impact of baryons
• The mass-metallicity relation at z~1-2 and its dependence on star formation rate
• Mass-Metallicity and Star Formation Rate in Galaxies: a complex relation tuned to stellar age
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey -- XIV. Galaxy mergers do not lie on the Fundamental Metallicity Relation
• Weak Evolution of the Mass-metallicity Relation at Cosmic Dawn in the FirstLight Simulations
• A Preview of JWST Metallicity Studies at Cosmic Noon: The First Detection of Auroral [O II] Emission at High Redshift
• Ionized gas kinematics and chemical abundances of low-mass star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 3$
• Early-type galaxy density profiles from IllustrisTNG: II. Evolutionary trend of the total density profile
• Star-forming galaxies are predicted to lie on a fundamental plane of mass, star formation rate and α-enhancement
• The impact of the FMR and starburst galaxies on the (low-metallicity) cosmic star formation history
• The gas-phase metallicities of star-forming galaxies in aperture-matched SDSS samples follow potential rather than mass or average surface density
• CO Emission, Molecular Gas, and Metallicity in Main-Sequence Star-Forming Galaxies at $z\sim 2.3$
• The Evolution of Gas-Phase Metallicity and Resolved Abundances in Star-forming Galaxies at $z\approx 0.6-1.8$
• A solar metallicity galaxy at $z>$ 7? Possible detection of the [N II] 122 $\mu$m and [O III] 52 $\mu$m lines
• Explaining the scatter in the galaxy mass-metallicity relation with gas flows
• What is Important? Morphological Asymmetries are Useful Predictors of Star Formation Rates of Star-forming Galaxies in SDSS Stripe 82
• Stochastic Modelling of Star Formation Histories III. Constraints from Physically-Motivated Gaussian Processes
• The diversity of the circumgalactic medium around z = 0 Milky Way-mass galaxies from the Auriga simulations
• The IllustrisTNG Simulations: Public Data Release
• Interacting galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulations -- V: Comparing the influence of star-forming vs. passive companions
• The MOSDEF Survey: Differences in SFR and Metallicity for Morphologically-Selected Mergers at z~2
• The mass-metallicity and fundamental metallicity relations in non-AGN and AGN-host galaxies
• Investigating the delay between dust radiation and star-formation in local and distant quenching galaxies
• MusE GAs FLOw and Wind (MEGAFLOW) IX. The impact of gas flows on the relations between the mass, star formation rate and metallicity of galaxies
• A spectroscopic study of a rich cluster at z=1.52 with Subaru $\&$ LBT: the environmental impacts on the mass-metallicity relation
• MOSEL survey: JWST reveals major mergers/strong interactions drive the extreme emission lines in the early universe
• A Tale of Two Clusters: An Analysis of Gas-Phase Metallicity and Nebular Gas Conditions in Proto-cluster Galaxies at z~2
• The origin of correlations between mass, metallicity and morphology in galaxies from the EAGLE simulation
• Oxygen Loss from Simulated Galaxies and the Metal Flow Main Sequence: Predicting the Dependence on Mass and Environment
• Expanding on the Fundamental Metallicity Relation in Dwarf Galaxies with MUSE
• The ASTRID Simulation at z=0: From Massive Black Holes to Large-scale Structure
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The environmental impact on SFR and metallicity in galaxy groups
• Correlations between mass, stellar kinematics and gas metallicity in EAGLE galaxies
• A stochastic model to reproduce the star-formation history of individual galaxies in hydrodynamic simulations
• Early-type galaxy density profiles from IllustrisTNG: III. Effects on outer kinematic structure
• The JWST EXCELS Survey: gas-phase metallicity evolution at 2 < z < 8
• Galaxy Manifold: Characterizing and understanding galaxies with two parameters
• Rapid, out of equilibrium metal enrichment indicated by a flat mass-metallicity relation at z~6 from NIRCam grism spectroscopy
• Gamma Analytical Modeling Evolution (GAME) I: The physical implications of deriving the stellar mass functions from z=0 to z=8
• The multi-component fitting to the star formation histories in the TNG simulation
• Gas flows in galaxy mergers: supersonic turbulence in bridges, accretion from the circumgalactic medium, and metallicity dilution
• The extension of the Fundamental Metallicity Relation beyond the BPT star-forming sequence: evidence for both gas accretion and starvation
• Downsizing revised: Star formation timescales for elliptical galaxies with an environment-dependent IMF and number of SNIa
• Extreme Metallicity Dwarf Galaxies in IllustrisTNG