2024/11/03 by Chuhan Zhang, Zefeng Li, Zhang, Chuhan +5 · 3 citations
Chemistry · #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #FOS: Physical sciences #Heavy Metals in Plants
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2411.01518
openalex publication_date 2024/11/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The evolution and distribution of metals within galaxies are critical for understanding galactic evolution and star formation processes, but the mechanisms responsible for shaping this distribution remain uncertain. In this study, we carry out high-resolution simulations of an isolated Milky Way-like galaxy, including a star-by-star treatment of both feedback and element injection. We include seven key isotopes of observational and physical interest, and which are distributed across different nucleosynthetic channels--primarily AGB stars (N, Ba, Ce), supernovae (O, Mg, S), and Wolf-Rayet stars (C) show measurably different correlation statistics in space and time and their fluctuations. This difference arises from the distinct ejection mechanisms associated with each nucleosynthetic process. The large-scale properties ensure that different elements, despite having different nucleosynthetic origins, are highly correlated with one another (>0.85 for all, >0.99 for same orgins), and their spatial correlations vary together in time. However small-scale variations naturally break elements into distinct nucleosynthetic familiars, with elements originating from the same channels correlating better with each other than with elements from different origins. Our findings suggest both challenges and opportunities for ongoing efforts to use chemical measurements of gas and stars to unravel the history and physics of galaxy assembly.