Energetic constraints to chemo-photometric evolution of spiral galaxies

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energetic limits of how spiral galaxies chemically evolve and change brightness over time, ensuring physical consistency between star processing and luminosity.

Contribution

It introduces a framework linking chemical enrichment to luminosity evolution based on energetic self-consistency principles.

Findings

Establishes a relation between yield metallicity and galaxy luminosity.

Provides constraints on chemical evolution models of spiral galaxies.

Highlights the importance of energetic considerations in galaxy evolution studies.

Abstract

The problem of chemo-photometric evolution of late-type galaxies is dealt with relying on prime physical arguments of energetic self-consistency between chemical enhancement of galaxy mass, through nuclear processing inside stars, and luminosity evolution of the system. Chemical enhancement is assessed in terms of the so-called "yield metallicity", that is the metal abundance of processed mass inside stars, as constrained by the galaxy photometric history.