Galactic Chemical Evolution

TL;DR

This paper investigates how different star formation and gas infall models influence the radial gradients of oxygen abundance in galactic disks, comparing models with simulations and observations to understand disk evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of chemical evolution models with varied prescriptions, emphasizing the importance of measurement range for interpreting gradient evolution.

Findings

Radial gradients are sensitive to the chosen radial range of measurement.

Different SFR and infall prescriptions produce distinct gradient evolution patterns.

Comparison with observations highlights the need for careful gradient measurement to infer disk growth.

Abstract

We analyze the evolution of oxygen abundance radial gradients resulting from our chemical evolution models calculated with different prescriptions for the star formation rate (SFR) and for the gas infall rate, in order to assess their respective roles in shaping gradients. We also compare with cosmological simulations and confront all with recent observational datasets, in particular with abundances inferred from planetary nebulae. We demonstrate the critical importance in isolating the specific radial range over which a gradient is measured, in order for their temporal evolution to be useful indicators of disk growth with redshift.