2,882 research outputs found
The Effects of radial inflow of gas and galactic fountains on the chemical evolution of M31
Galactic fountains and radial gas flows are very important ingredients in
modeling the chemical evolution of galactic disks. Our aim here is to study the
effects of galactic fountains and radial gas flows in the chemical evolution of
the disk of M31. We adopt a ballistic method to study the effects of galactic
fountains on the chemical enrichment of the M31 disk. We find that the landing
coordinate for the fountains in M31 is no more than 1 kpc from the starting
point, thus producing negligible effect on the chemical evolution of the disk.
We find that the delay time in the enrichment process due to fountains is no
longer than 100 Myr and this timescale also produces negligible effects on the
results. Then, we compute the chemical evolution of the M31 disk with radial
gas flows produced by the infall of extragalactic material and fountains. We
find that a moderate inside-out formation of the disk coupled with radial flows
of variable speed can very well reproduce the observed gradient. We discuss
also the effects of other parameters such a threshold in the gas density for
star formation and an efficiency of star formation varying with the galactic
radius. We conclude that the most important physical processes in creating disk
gradients are the inside-out formation and the radial gas flows. More data on
abundance gradients both locally and at high redshift are necessary to confirm
this conclusion.Comment: Accepted by A&
Modelling the nova rate in galaxies
We compute theoretical nova rates as well as type Ia SN rates in galaxies of
different morphological type (Milky Way, ellipticals and irregulars) by means
of detailed chemical evolution models, and compare them with the most recent
observations. The main difference among the different galaxies is the assumed
history of star formation. In particular, we predict that the nova rates in
giant ellipticals such as M87 are 100-300 nova/yr, about a factor of ten larger
than in our Galaxy (25 nova/yr), in agreement with very recent estimates from
HST data. The best agreement with the observed rates is obtained if the
recurrence time of novae in ellipticals is assumed to be longer than in the
Milky Way. This result indicates that the star formation rate in ellipticals,
and in particular in M87, must have been very efficient at early cosmic epochs.
We predict a nova rate for the LMC of 1.7 nova/yr, again in agreement with
observations. We compute also the K- and B-band luminosities for ellipticals of
different luminous mass and conclude that there is not a clear trend for the
luminosity specific nova rate with luminosity among these galaxies. However,
firm conclusions about ellipticals cannot be drawn because of possible
observational biases in observing these objects. The comparison between the
specific nova rates in the Milky Way and the LMC indicates a trend of
increasing nova rate passing from the Galaxy towards late-type spirals and
Magellanic irregulars.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, Astronomy and Astrophysics accepte
On the origin of the helium-rich population in the peculiar globular cluster Omega Centauri
In this contribution we discuss the origin of the extreme helium-rich stars
which inhabit the blue main sequence (bMS) of the Galactic globular cluster
Omega Centauri. In a scenario where the cluster is the surviving remnant of a
dwarf galaxy ingested by the Milky Way many Gyr ago, the peculiar chemical
composition of the bMS stars can be naturally explained by considering the
effects of strong differential galactic winds, which develop owing to multiple
supernova explosions in a shallow potential well.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, to appear in the Proceedings of IAU Symposium No.
268, Light Elements in the Universe (C. Charbonnel, M. Tosi, F. Primas, C.
Chiappini, eds., Cambridge Univ. Press
Chemical evolution of the Galactic Center
In recent years, the Galactic Center (GC) region (200 pc in radius) has been
studied in detail with spectroscopic stellar data as well as an estimate of the
ongoing star formation rate. The aims of this paper are to study the chemical
evolution of the GC region by means of a detailed chemical evolution model and
to compare the results with high resolution spectroscopic data in order to
impose constraints on the GC formation history.The chemical evolution model
assumes that the GC region formed by fast infall of gas and then follows the
evolution of alpha-elements and Fe. We test different initial mass functions
(IMFs), efficiencies of star formation and gas infall timescales. To reproduce
the currently observed star formation rate, we assume a late episode of star
formation triggered by gas infall/accretion. We find that, in order to
reproduce the [alpha/Fe] ratios as well as the metallicity distribution
function observed in GC stars, the GC region should have experienced a main
early strong burst of star formation, with a star formation efficiency as high
as 25 Gyr^{-1}, occurring on a timescale in the range 0.1-0.7 Gyr, in agreement
with previous models of the entire bulge. Although the small amount of data
prevents us from drawing firm conclusions, we suggest that the best IMF should
contain more massive stars than expected in the solar vicinity, and the last
episode of star formation, which lasted several hundred million years, should
have been triggered by a modest episode of gas infall/accretion, with a star
formation efficiency similar to that of the previous main star formation
episode. This last episode of star formation produces negligible effects on the
abundance patterns and can be due to accretion of gas induced by the bar. Our
results exclude an important infall event as a trigger for the last starburst.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Formation & evolution of the Galactic bulge: constraints from stellar abundances
We compute the chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge in the context of an
inside-out model for the formation of the Milky Way. The model contains updated
stellar yields from massive stars. The main purpose of the paper is to compare
the predictions of this model with new observations of chemical abundance
ratios and metallicity distributions in order to put constraints on the
formation and evolution of the bulge. We computed the evolution of several
alpha-elements and Fe and performed several tests by varying different
parameters such as star formation efficiency, slope of the initial mass
function and infall timescale. We also tested the effect of adopting a primary
nitrogen contribution from massive stars. The [alpha/Fe] abundance ratios in
the Bulge are predicted to be supersolar for a very large range in [Fe/H], each
element having a different slope. These predictions are in very good agreement
with most recent accurate abundance determinations. We also find a good fit of
the most recent Bulge stellar metallicity distributions. We conclude that the
Bulge formed on a very short timescale (even though timescales much shorter
than about 0.1 Gyr are excluded) with a quite high star formation efficiency of
about 20 Gyr and with an initial mass function more skewed toward high
masses (i.e. x <= 0.95) than the solar neighbourhood and rest of the disk. The
results obtained here are more robust than previous ones since they are based
on very accurate abundance measurements.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&
The chemical evolution of Barium and Europium in the Milky Way
We compute the evolution of the abundances of barium and europium in the
Milky Way and we compare our results with the observed abundances from the
recent UVES Large Program "First Stars". We use a chemical evolution model
which already reproduces the majority of observational constraints. We confirm
that barium is a neutron capture element mainly produced in the low mass AGB
stars during the thermal-pulsing phase by the 13C neutron source, in a slow
neutron capture process. However, in order to reproduce the [Ba/Fe] vs. [Fe/H]
as well as the Ba solar abundance, we suggest that Ba should be also produced
as an r-process element by massive stars in the range 10-30 solar masses. On
the other hand, europium should be only an r-process element produced in the
same range of masses (10-30 solar masses), at variance with previous
suggestions indicating a smaller mass range for the Eu producers. As it is well
known, there is a large spread in the [Ba/Fe] and [Eu/Fe] ratios at low
metallicities, although smaller in the newest data. With our model we estimate
for both elements (Ba and Eu) the ranges for the r-process yields from massive
stars which better reproduce the trend of the data. We find that with the same
yields which are able to explain the observed trends, the large spread in the
[Ba/Fe] and [Eu/Fe] ratios cannot be explained even in the context of an
inhomogeneous models for the chemical evolution of our Galaxy. We therefore
derive the amount by which the yields should be modified to fully account for
the observed spread. We then discuss several possibilities to explain the size
of the spread. We finally suggest that the production ratio of [Ba/Eu] could be
almost constant in the massive stars.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, accepted for pubblication in A&
Chemical evolution of the bulge of M31: predictions about abundance ratios
We aim at reproducing the chemical evolution of the bulge of M31 by means of
a detailed chemical evolution model, including radial gas flows coming from the
disk. We study the impact of the initial mass function, the star formation rate
and the time scale for bulge formation on the metallicity distribution function
of stars. We compute several models of chemical evolution using the metallicity
distribution of dwarf stars as an observational constraint for the bulge of
M31. Then, by means of the model which best reproduces the metallicity
distribution function, we predict the [X/Fe] vs. [Fe/H] relations for several
chemical elements (O, Mg, Si, Ca, C, N). Our best model for the bulge of M31 is
obtained by means of a robust statistical method and assumes a Salpeter initial
mass function, a Schmidt-Kennicutt law for star formation with an exponent
k=1.5, an efficiency of star formation of , and an
infall timescale of Gyr. Our results suggest that the bulge
of M31 formed very quickly by means of an intense star formation rate and an
initial mass function flatter than in the solar vicinity but similar to that
inferred for the Milky Way bulge. The [/Fe] ratios in the stars of the
bulge of M31 should be high for most of the [Fe/H] range, as is observed in the
Milky Way bulge. These predictions await future data to be proven.Comment: Accepted for publication by MNRA
Loss of star forming gas in SDSS galaxies
Using the star formation rates from the SDSS galaxy sample, extracted using
the MOPED algorithm, and the empirical Kennicutt law relating star formation
rate to gas density, we calculate the time evolution of the gas fraction as a
function of the present stellar mass. We show how the gas-to-stars ratio varies
with stellar mass, finding good agreement with previous results for smaller
samples at the present epoch. For the first time we show clear evidence for
progressive gas loss with cosmic epoch, especially in low-mass systems. We find
that galaxies with small stellar masses have lost almost all of their cold
baryons over time, whereas the most massive galaxies have lost little. Our
results also show that the most massive galaxies have evolved faster and turned
most of their gas into stars at an early time, thus strongly supporting a
downsizing scenario for galaxy evolution.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figures, ApJ, accepte
The mass surface density in the local disk and the chemical evolution of the Galaxy
We have studied the effect of adopting different values of the total baryonic
mass surface density in the local disk at the present time in a model for the
chemical evolution of the Galaxy. We have compared our model results with the
G-dwarf metallicity distribution, the amounts of gas, stars, stellar remnants,
infall rate and SN rate in the solar vicinity, and with the radial abundance
gradients and gas distribution in the disk. This comparison strongly suggests
that the value of the total baryonic mass surface density in the local disk
which best fits the observational properties should lie in the range 50-75 Msun
pc-2, and that values outside this range should be ruled out.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX, 3 figures, accepted for publication in the
Astrophysical Journal, uses emulateapj.st
- …