The chemical connection between damped Lyman-α systems and Local Group dwarf galaxies

Abstract

Abundances of the volatile elements S and Zn have now been measured in around 80 individual stars in the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy, covering the metallicity range $-2.4\le \text{[Fe/H]}\le -0.9$. These two elements are of particular interest as they are not depleted onto dust in gas, and their ratio, [S/Zn], has thus commonly been used as a proxy for [$\alpha$/Fe] in Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems. The S abundances in Sculptor are similar to other $\alpha$-elements in this galaxy, consistent with S being mainly created in core-collapse supernovae, but also having some contribution from supernovae Type Ia. However, our results show that Zn and Fe do not trace all the same nucleosynthetic production channels. In particular, (contrary to Fe) Zn is not significantly produced by supernovae Type Ia. Thus, [S/Zn] cannot be reliably used as a proxy for [$\alpha$/Fe]. We propose [O/S] as a function of [S/H] as a possible alternative. At higher metallicities, the values of [S/Zn] measured in Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems are inconsistent with those in local dwarf galaxies, and are more compatible with the Milky Way disk. Low-metallicity Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems are, however, consistent with the most metal-poor stars in Local Group dwarf spheroidal galaxies. Assuming that the dust depletions of S and Zn are negligible, our comparison indicates that the star formation histories of Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ systems are on average different from both the Milky Way and the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in A&A

References in corpus (82)

• Planck 2015 results. XIII. Cosmological parameters
• Cosmic Star Formation History
• The observed properties of dwarf galaxies in and around the Local Group
• The Nucleosynthetic Signature of Population III
• Nucleosynthesis in Chandrasekhar Mass Models for Type Ia Supernovae and Constraints on Progenitor Systems and Burning-Front Propagation
• Star Formation Histories, Abundances and Kinematics of Dwarf Galaxies in the Local Group
• A Cosmology Calculator for the World Wide Web
• First stars V - Abundance patterns from C to Zn and supernova yields in the early Galaxy
• The Neutral Atomic Phases of the ISM in the Galaxy
• Exploring the Milky Way stellar disk. A detailed elemental abundance study of 714 F and G dwarf stars in the Solar neighbourhood
• A Unified Representation of Gas-Phase Element Depletions in the Interstellar Medium
• Elemental Abundance Survey of The Galactic Thick Disk
• Galactic chemical evolution: Carbon through Zinc
• Solar Chemical Abundances Determined with a CO5BOLD 3D Model Atmosphere
• The Universal Stellar Mass-Stellar Metallicity Relation for Dwarf Galaxies
• The Chemical Compositions of Galactic Disk F and G Dwarfs
• Damped Lyman alpha Systems
• Galactic Evolution of Sr, Y, Zr: A Multiplicity of Nucleosynthetic Processes
• Two distinct halo populations in the solar neighborhood. Evidence from stellar abundance ratios and kinematics
• Nucleosynthesis of Zinc and Iron-Peak Elements in Pop III Type II Supernovae : Comparison with abundances of Very Metal-Poor Halo Stars
• Abundance Patterns in the Draco, Sextans and Ursa Minor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies
• VLT/UVES Abundances in Four Nearby Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies: I. Nucleosynthesis and Abundance Ratios
• Chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge as traced by microlensed dwarf and subgiant stars. V. Evidence for a wide age distribution and a complex MDF
• On Extending the Mass-Metallicity Relation of Galaxies by 2.5 Decades in Stellar Mass
• The Birth of a Galaxy - III. Propelling reionisation with the faintest galaxies
• Metallicity Evolution of Damped Lyman-alpha Systems out to z~5
• The exotic chemical composition of the Sagittarius dwarf Spheroidal galaxy
• The ACS Survey of Galactic Globular Clusters: M54 and Young Populations in the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• The Chemical Evolution of the Draco Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• 'Sculptor'-ing the Galaxy? The Chemical Compositions of Red Giants in the Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• Two distinct halo populations in the solar neighborhood. II. Evidence from stellar abundances of Mn, Cu, Zn, Y, and Ba
• Nucleosynthesis in the Innermost Ejecta of Neutrino-Drive Supernova Explosions in Two Dimensions
• The most metal-poor damped Lyman-alpha systems: Insights into chemical evolution in the very metal-poor regime
• The Star Formation & Chemical Evolution History of the Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• Chemical abundances of the Milky Way thick disk and stellar halo II.: sodium, iron-peak and neutron-capture elements
• Nucleosynthesis and the Inhomogeneous Chemical Evolution of the Carina Dwarf Galaxy
• Sulphur and zinc abundances in Galactic halo stars revisited
• Abundances of Cu and Zn in metal-poor stars: clues for Galaxy evolution
• Reionization and high-redshift galaxies: the view from quasar absorption lines
• Sulphur and zinc abundances in Galactic stars and damped Lyman-alpha systems
• The Chemical Evolution of the Ursa Minor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• The Rapid Decline in Metallicity of Damped Ly-alpha Systems at z~5
• Non-LTE Line-Formation and Abundances of Sulfur and Zinc in F, G, and K Stars
• Nucleosynthesis in the Hot Convective Bubble in Core-Collapse Supernovae
• The Star Formation History and the Morphological Evolution of the Draco Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• Elemental Abundances and their Implications for the Chemical Enrichment of the Boötes~I Ultra-Faint Galaxy
• Zn and Cr abundances in damped Lyman alpha systems from the CORALS survey
• Consensus report on 25 years of searches for damped Ly$\alpha$ galaxies in emission: Confirming their metallicity-luminosity relation at $z\gtrsim 2$
• Subaru/HDS Abundances in Three Giant Stars in the Ursa Minor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• Verifying the mass-metallicity relation in damped Lyman-alpha selected galaxies at 0.1<z<3.2
• Reproducing the Kinematics of Damped Lyman-alpha Systems
• Sulphur abundances in disk stars: a correlation with silicon
• VLT/FLAMES spectroscopy of Red Giant Branch stars in the Carina dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• A SINFONI Integral Field Spectroscopy Survey for Galaxy Counterparts to Damped Lyman-alpha Systems - III. Three Additional Detections
• The ESO UVES Advanced Data Products Quasar Sample - VI. Sub-Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ Metallicity Measurements and the Circum-Galactic Medium
• The HI Content of the Universe over the Past 10 Gyrs
• The first carbon-enhanced metal-poor star found in the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal
• Detailed Abundances of Two Very Metal-Poor Stars in Dwarf Galaxies
• The Local Group as a time machine: studying the high-redshift Universe with nearby galaxies
• Directly imaging damped Ly-alpha galaxies at z>2. III: The star formation rates of neutral gas reservoirs at z~2.7
• The most metal-poor damped Lyman alpha systems: An insight into dwarf galaxies at high redshift
• Mining the Galactic Halo for Very Metal-Poor Stars
• The evolution of neutral gas in damped Lyman $\alpha$ systems from the XQ-100 survey
• The Magellan Uniform Survey of Damped Lyman alpha Systems I: Cosmic Metallicity Evolution
• The age of the main population of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Solving the "M giant conundrum"
• Chemical Signatures of the First Supernovae in the Sculptor Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• Interstellar Gas-phase Element Depletions in the Small Magellanic Cloud: A Guide to Correcting for Dust in QSO Absorption Line Systems
• The AMBRE project: Iron-peak elements in the solar neighbourhood
• The Gaia-ESO Survey: Galactic evolution of sulphur and zinc
• Elemental depletions in the Magellanic Clouds and the evolution of depletions with metallicity
• Zinc abundances in Galactic bulge field red giants: implications for DLA systems
• First Stars XIV. Sulfur abundances in extremely metal-poor (EMP) stars
• First stars in Damped Lyman Alpha systems
• Zinc in the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• The chemistry of the most metal-rich damped Lyman $\alpha$ systems at z$\sim 2$ II. Context with the Local Group
• The age structure of the Milky Way's halo
• Enrichment of Zinc in galactic chemodynamical evolution models
• A scaling law for interstellar depletions
• An inefficient dwarf: Chemical abundances and the evolution of the Ursa Minor dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• The Mean Metal-line Absorption Spectrum of DLAs in BOSS
• Enrichment of Heavy Elements in the red giant S15-19 in the Sextans Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
• Sulphur in the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy - Including NLTE corrections

Cited by in corpus (15)

• VLT/FLAMES high-resolution chemical abundances in Sculptor: a textbook dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• Multi-phase Circum-Galactic Medium probed with MUSE and ALMA
• Probing the existence of very massive first stars
• Iron-peak elements Sc, V, Mn, Cu and Zn in Galactic bulge globular clusters
• Tracing Pop III supernovae with extreme energies through the Sculptor dwarf spheroidal galaxy
• Oxygen and zinc abundances in 417 Galactic bulge red giants
• Metals and dust in the neutral ISM: the Galaxy, Magellanic Clouds, and damped Lyman-α absorbers
• Neutron-capture elements in dwarf galaxies II: Challenges for the s- and i-processes at low metallicity
• Evidence of First Stars-enriched Gas in High-redshift Absorbers
• Evidence of extended emission in GRB 181123B and other high-redshift short GRBs
• Enrichment of Strontium in Dwarf Galaxies
• A 3D view of dwarf galaxies with Gaia and VLT/FLAMES I. The Sculptor dwarf spheroidal
• Empirical Constraints on Core Collapse Supernova Yields using Very Metal Poor Damped Lyman Alpha Absorbers
• Investigation of the Prompt SNe Ia progenitor nature through the analysis of the chemical composition of globular clusters and circumgalactic clouds
• A metal-line strength indicator for Damped Lyman Alpha (DLA) systems at low signal-to-noise