Chemical evolution of galaxy baryons as a function of halo mass in cosmological simulations

BURRAFATO Y. D.; DE ROSSI M. E.; NAKWACKI M. S.; TOMASINI M. C.; ZENOCRATTI L. J.; ZERBO M. C.

Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Otro; Giambiagi Winter School on Cosmology; 2023

DEPARTAMENTO DE FISICA ; FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS EXACTAS Y NATURALES ; UNIVERSIDAD DE BUENOS AIRES

Different studies suggest that massive galaxies (i.e., with stellar masses M_igstar ≳ 10^10 M⊙) seem to follow scaling relations associated with metallicity with characteristics that differ from those corresponding to less massive systems. In this work, we analyze the origin of the scatter of the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) of massive galaxies using the EAGLE (Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environment) cosmological simulations. We find that, at a fixed M_igstar, the gas-phase metallicity of galaxies tends to decrease, on average, with their stellar age and the mass associated with supermassive black holes. Furthermore, consistently with previous works, we find a clear dependence of the chemical enrichment of galaxies on their morpho-kinematics. In particular, for galaxies of similar M_igstar, those with less rotational support show gas components with lower metallicities, this trend being stronger as M_igstar increases. According to our preliminary results, the main processes that would determine the MZR of massive galaxies would be the feedback of active galactic nuclei and galaxy mergers.