A tight N/O-potential relation in star-forming galaxies
arXiv:2407.17945
Abstract
We report a significantly tighter trend between gaseous N/O and (a proxy for gravitational potential) than has previously been reported between gaseous metallicity and , for star-forming galaxies in the MaNGA survey. We argue this result to be a consequence of deeper potential wells conferring greater resistance to metal outflows while also being associated with earlier star-formation histories, combined with N/O being comparatively unaffected by metal-poor inflows. The potential-N/O relation thus appears to be both more resistant to short-timescale baryonic processes and also more reflective of a galaxy's chemical evolution state, when compared to previously-considered relations.
7 pages, 3 figures. Accepted by MNRAS Letters