The Chemical and Dynamical Evolution of Isolated Dwarf Galaxies

TL;DR

This paper analyzes simulations of isolated dwarf galaxies to study their cold interstellar medium and stellar chemical patterns, comparing results with observations to assess the models' accuracy.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the gas and chemical properties of simulated dwarf galaxies, linking their evolution to observable characteristics.

Findings

Cold gas density profiles match observed trends.

Stellar metallicity distributions are consistent with real dwarf galaxies.

Alpha-element to iron ratios show expected chemical evolution patterns.

Abstract

Using a suite of simulations (Governato et al. 2010) which successfully produce bulgeless (dwarf) disk galaxies, we provide an analysis of their associated cold interstellar media (ISM) and stellar chemical abundance patterns. A preliminary comparison with observations is undertaken, in order to assess whether the properties of the cold gas and chemistry of the stellar components are recovered successfully. To this end, we have extracted the radial and vertical gas density profiles, neutral hydrogen velocity dispersion, and the power spectrum of structure within the ISM. We complement this analysis of the cold gas with a brief examination of the simulations' metallicity distribution functions and the distribution of alpha-elements-to-iron.