Correlations between mass, stellar kinematics, and gas metallicity in eagle galaxies

Theuns, T.; Lara-López, M.A.; De Rossi, M.E.; Zenocratti, L.J.

doi:10.1093/mnrasl/slaa085

Correlations between mass, stellar kinematics, and gas metallicity in eagle galaxies

Theuns, T.; Lara-López, M.A.; De Rossi, M.E.; Zenocratti, L.J.

Authors

Professor Tom Theuns tom.theuns@durham.ac.uk
Professor

M.A. Lara-López

M.E. De Rossi

L.J. Zenocratti

Abstract

The metallicity of star-forming gas in galaxies from the EAGLE (Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments) simulations increases with stellar mass. Here, we investigate whether the scatter around this relation correlates with morphology and/or stellar kinematics. At redshift z = 0, galaxies with more rotational support have lower metallicities on average when the stellar mass is below M⋆ ≈ 1010 M⊙. This trend inverts at higher values of M⋆, when prolate galaxies show typically lower metallicity. At increasing redshifts, the trend between rotational support and metallicity becomes weaker at low stellar mass but more pronounced at high stellar mass. We argue that the secondary dependence of metallicity on stellar kinematics is another manifestation of the observed anticorrelation between metallicity and star formation rate at a given stellar mass. At low masses, such trends seem to be driven by the different star formation histories of galaxies and stellar feedback. At high masses, feedback from active galactic nuclei and galaxy mergers plays a dominant role.

Citation

Theuns, T., Lara-López, M., De Rossi, M., & Zenocratti, L. (2020). Correlations between mass, stellar kinematics, and gas metallicity in eagle galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 496(1), L33-L37. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slaa085

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	May 5, 2020
Online Publication Date	May 15, 2020
Publication Date	2020-07
Deposit Date	Jul 8, 2020
Publicly Available Date	Jul 8, 2020
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Electronic ISSN	1745-3933
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	496
Issue	1
Pages	L33-L37
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slaa085

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. ©: 2020 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.