Distribution and Evolution of Metals in the Magneticum simulations

TL;DR

The Magneticum simulations provide detailed insights into the distribution and evolution of metals in galaxies and clusters, successfully reproducing many observed properties and revealing the complex interplay of feedback, star formation, and environmental effects.

Contribution

This study offers a comprehensive analysis of metal evolution in large-scale simulations, highlighting their realism and identifying areas for future physical process inclusion.

Findings

Simulations match many observed chemical properties and scaling relations.

No strong secondary parameters drive scatter in these relations.

Remaining differences suggest missing detailed physical processes.

Abstract

Metals are ideal tracers of the baryonic cycle within halos. Their composition is a fossil record connecting the evolution of the various stellar components of galaxies to the interaction with the environment by in- and outflows. The Magneticum simulations allow to study halos across a large range of masses and environments, from massive galaxy clusters containing hundreds of galaxies down to isolated field galaxies. They include a detailed treatment of the chemo-energetic feedback from the stellar component and its evolution as well as feedback from the evolution of supermassive black holes. Following the detailed evolution of various metal species and their relative composition due to continuing enrichment of the IGM and ICM by SNIa, SNII and AGB winds of the evolving stellar population reveals the complex interplay of local star formation processes, mixing, global baryonic flows, secular galactic evolution and environmental processes. We present results from the Magneticum simulations on the chemical properties of simulated galaxies and galaxy clusters, carefully comparing them to observations. We show that the simulations already reach a very high level of realism within their complex descriptions of the chemo-energetic feedback, successfully reproducing a large number of observed properties and scaling relations. Our simulated galaxies clearly indicate that there are no strong secondary parameters (like star formation rates at fixed redshift) driving the scatter in these scaling relations. The remaining differences clearly point to detailed physical processes which have to be included into future simulations.