Evolution of the stellar metallicities of galaxies in the EAGLE simulations

TL;DR

This study uses the EAGLE simulations to analyze how stellar metallicity correlates with galaxy properties like gas fraction and star formation, revealing consistent trends across cosmic time.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the relationship between stellar metallicity, gas content, and feedback processes in galaxy evolution within a cosmological simulation framework.

Findings

Lower metallicity galaxies have higher gas fractions and star formation rates.

Stellar metallicity anticorrelates with gas fraction, stable across redshift.

AGN feedback influences metallicity at high stellar masses.

Abstract

We study the correlation between stellar mass and stellar metallicity in the Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments (EAGLE) suite of cosmological hydrodynamical simulations. At a given stellar mass, simulated galaxies with lower stellar metallicities show, on average, higher gas fractions, higher specific star formation rates and younger stellar populations. Active galactic nuclei feedback seems to play an important role on the determination of the stellar metallicity at high stellar masses. In general, simulated systems follow a well-defined anticorrelation between stellar metallicity and gas fraction, which does not evolve significantly with redshift. All these trends are consistent with previous findings regarding the metallicity of the star-forming gas in EAGLE.