No Arabic abstract
We present a study on the origin of the metallicity evolution of the intra-cluster medium (ICM) by applying a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation to N-body/SPH (smoothed particle hydrodynamic) non-radiative numerical simulations of clusters of galaxies. The semi-analytic model includes gas cooling, star formation, supernovae feedback and metal enrichment, and is linked to the diffuse gas of the underlying simulations so that the chemical properties of gas particles are dynamically and consistently generated from stars in the galaxies. This hybrid model let us have information on the spatial distribution of metals in the ICM. The results obtained for a set of clusters with virial masses of ~1.5*10^15 h^{-1} M_sun contribute to the theoretical interpretation of recent observational X-ray data, which indicate a decrease of the average iron content of the intra-cluster gas with increasing redshift. We find that this evolution arises mainly as a result of a progressive increase of the iron abundance within ~0.15 R_vir. The clusters have been considerably enriched by z~1 with very low contribution from recent star formation. Low entropy gas that has been enriched at high redshift sinks to the cluster centre contributing to the evolution of the metallicity profiles.
(Abridged)The X-ray measurements of the ICM metallicity are becoming more frequent due to the availability of powerful X-ray telescope with excellent spatial and spectral resolutions. The information which can be extracted from the measurements of the alpha-elements, like Oxygen, Magnesium and Silicon with respect to the Iron abundance is extremely important to better understand the stellar formation and its evolutionary history. In this paper we investigate possible source of bias connected to the plasma physics when recovering metal abundances from X-ray spectra. To do this we analyze 6 simulated galaxy clusters processed through the new version of our X-ray MAp Simulator, which allows to create mock XMM-Newton EPIC MOS1 and MOS2 observations. By comparing the spectroscopic results to the input values we find that: i) Fe is recovered with high accuracy for both hot (T>3 keV) and cold (T<2 keV) systems; at intermediate temperatures, however, we find a systematic overestimate which depends on the number counts; ii) O is well recovered in cold clusters, while in hot systems its measure may overestimate by a factor up to 2-3; iii) Being a weak line, the measurement of Mg is always difficult; despite of this, for cold systems (T<2 keV) we do not find any systematic behavior, while for very hot systems (T>5 keV) the spectroscopic measurement may be strongly overestimated up to a factor of 4; iv) Si is well recovered for all the clusters in our sample. We investigate in detail the nature of the systematic effects and biases found. We conclude that they are mainly connected with the multi-temperature nature of the projected observed spectra and to the intrinsic limitation of the XMM-Newton EPIC spectral resolution that does not always allow to disentangle among the emission lines produced by different elements.
We use high-resolution cosmological zoom-in simulations from the Feedback in Realistic Environment (FIRE) project to study the galaxy mass-metallicity relations (MZR) from z=0-6. These simulations include explicit models of the multi-phase ISM, star formation, and stellar feedback. The simulations cover halo masses Mhalo=10^9-10^13 Msun and stellar mass Mstar=10^4-10^11 Msun at z=0 and have been shown to produce many observed galaxy properties from z=0-6. For the first time, our simulations agree reasonably well with the observed mass-metallicity relations at z=0-3 for a broad range of galaxy masses. We predict the evolution of the MZR from z=0-6 as log(Zgas/Zsun)=12+log(O/H)-9.0=0.35[log(Mstar/Msun)-10]+0.93 exp(-0.43 z)-1.05 and log(Zstar/Zsun)=[Fe/H]-0.2=0.40[log(Mstar/Msun)-10]+0.67 exp(-0.50 z)-1.04, for gas-phase and stellar metallicity, respectively. Our simulations suggest that the evolution of MZR is associated with the evolution of stellar/gas mass fractions at different redshifts, indicating the existence of a universal metallicity relation between stellar mass, gas mass, and metallicities. In our simulations, galaxies above Mstar=10^6 Msun are able to retain a large fraction of their metals inside the halo, because metal-rich winds fail to escape completely and are recycled into the galaxy. This resolves a long-standing discrepancy between sub-grid wind models (and semi-analytic models) and observations, where common sub-grid models cannot simultaneously reproduce the MZR and the stellar mass functions.
The asteroid belt was dynamically shaped during and after planet formation. Despite representing a broad ring of stable orbits, the belt contains less than one one-thousandth of an Earth mass. The asteroid orbits are dynamically excited with a wide range in eccentricity and inclination and their compositions are diverse, with a general trend toward dry objects in the inner belt and more water-rich objects in the outer belt. Here we review models of the asteroid belts origins and dynamical history. The classical view is that the belt was born with several Earth masses in planetesimals, then strongly depleted. However, it is possible that very few planetesimals ever formed in the asteroid region and that the belts story is one of implantation rather than depletion. A number of processes may have implanted asteroids from different regions of the Solar System, dynamically removed them, and excited their orbits. During the gaseous disk phase these include the effects of giant planet growth and migration and sweeping secular resonances. After the gaseous disk phase these include scattering from resident planetary embryos, chaos in the giant planets orbits, the giant planet instability, and long-term dynamical evolution. Different global models for Solar System formation imply contrasting dynamical histories of the asteroid belt. Vesta and Ceres may have been implanted from opposite regions of the Solar System -- Ceres from the Jupiter-Saturn region and Vesta from the terrestrial planet region -- and could therefore represent very different formation conditions.
Understanding the evolution of the N/O ratio in the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies is essential if we are to complete our picture of the chemical evolution of galaxies at high redshift, since most observational calibrations of O/H implicitly depend upon the intrinsic N/O ratio. The observed N/O ratio, however, shows large scatter at low O/H, and is strongly dependent on galactic environment. We show that several heretofore unexplained features of the N/O distribution at low O/H can be explained by the N seen in metal-poor galaxies being mostly primary nitrogen that is returned to the ISM via pre-supernova winds from rapidly rotating massive stars ($M gtrsim 10$ M$_odot$, $v/v_{rm crit} gtrsim 0.4$). This mechanism naturally produces the observed N/O plateau at low O/H. We show that the large scatter in N/O at low O/H also arises naturally from variations in star-formation efficiency. By contrast, models in which the N and O come primarily from supernovae provide a very poor fit to the observed abundance distribution. We propose that the peculiar abundance patterns we observe at low O/H are a signature that dwarf galaxies retain little of their SN ejecta, leaving them with abundance patterns typical of winds.
Scaling relations for globular clusters (GC) differ from scaling relations for pressure supported (elliptical) galaxies. We show that two-body relaxation is the dominant mechanism in shaping the bivariate dependence of density on mass and Galactocentric distance for Milky Way GCs with masses <10^6 Msun, and it is possible, but not required, that GCs formed with similar scaling relations as ultra-compact dwarf galaxies. We use a fast cluster evolution model to fit a parameterised model for the initial properties of Milky Way GCs to the observed present-day properties. The best-fit cluster initial mass function is substantially flatter (power-law index alpha =- 0.6+/-0.2) than what is observed for young massive clusters (YMCs) forming in the nearby Universe (alpha =~-2). A slightly steeper CIMF is allowed when considering the metal-rich GCs separately (alpha =~-1.2+/-0.4$). If stellar mass loss and two-body relaxation in the Milky Way tidal field are the dominant disruption mechanisms, then GCs formed differently from YMCs.