The Metallicity Evolution of Interacting Galaxies
Abstract
Nuclear inflows of metal-poor interstellar gas triggered by galaxy interactions can account for the systematically lower central oxygen abundances observed in local interacting galaxies. We investigate the metallicity evolution of a large set of simulations of colliding galaxies with numerical simulations including cooling, star formation, feedback, and mass recycling. We focus on the influence of merger-induced inflows and chemical enrichment in determining the nuclear metallicity evolution. We find an average depression in the nuclear metallicity of ∼0.07 for gas-poor disk-disk interactions. The simulations fare reasonably well when compared to the observed mass-metallicity and separation-metallicity relationships.
- Publication:
-
Galaxy Mergers in an Evolving Universe
- Pub Date:
- October 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013ASPC..477..237T