Scaling relations and baryonic cycling in local star-forming galaxies. III. Outflows, effective yields and metal loading factors

TL;DR

This study uses a chemical evolution model and the MAGMA galaxy sample to analyze gas flows and metal enrichment in local star-forming galaxies, revealing how outflows and accretion shape their metallicity relations.

Contribution

It introduces a model that constrains stellar-driven outflows and metal loading factors across a broad galaxy mass range, improving understanding of baryonic cycling.

Findings

Gas accretion roughly equals gas loss, indicating a 'gas equilibrium' state.

Metal loading factors increase in lower-mass galaxies, enhancing metal expulsion.

Supports momentum-driven winds as the dominant outflow mechanism at low masses.

Abstract

Gas accretion and stellar feedback processes link metal content, star formation, and gas and stellar mass (and the potential depth) in star-forming galaxies. Constraining this hypersurface has been challenging because of the need for measurements of HI and HII gas masses spanning a broad parameter space. A recent step forward has been achieved through the "Metallicity And Gas for Mass Assembly" (MAGMA) sample of local star-forming galaxies, which consists of homogeneously-determined parameters and a significant quantity of dwarf galaxies, with stellar masses as low as $\sim 10^5 - 10^{6}\, M_{\odot}$. Here, we adopt a "standard" galactic chemical evolution model, with which we can quantify stellar-driven outflows. In particular, we constrain the difference between the mass-loading in accretion and outflows and the wind metal-loading factor. The resulting model reproduces very well the local mass-metallicity relation, and the observed trends of metallicity with gas fraction. Although the difference in mass loading between accreted and expelled gas is extremely difficult to constrain, we find indications that, on average, the amount of gas acquired through accretion is roughly the same as the gas lost through bulk stellar outflows, corresponding to a "gas equilibrium" scenario. In agreement with previous work, the wind metal-loading factor shows a steep increase toward lower mass and circular velocity, indicating that low-mass galaxies are more efficient at expelling metals, thus shaping the mass-metallicity relation. Effective yields are found to increase with mass up to an inflection mass threshold, with a mild decline at larger masses and circular velocities. A comparison of our results for metal loading in outflows with the expectations for their mass loading favors momentum-driven winds at low masses, rather than energy-driven ones. (abridged)