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Similar star formation rate and metallicity variability time-scales drive the fundamental metallicity relation

MPS-Authors

Torrey,  Paul
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Vogelsberger,  Mark
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Hernquist,  Lars
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

McKinnon,  Ryan
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Marinacci,  Federico
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Simcoe,  Robert A.
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Springel,  Volker
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Pillepich,  Annalisa
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Naiman,  Jill
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Pakmor,  Rüdiger
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Weinberger,  Rainer
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Nelson,  Dylan
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

Genel,  Shy
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Max Planck Society and Cooperation Partners;

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Citation

Torrey, P., Vogelsberger, M., Hernquist, L., McKinnon, R., Marinacci, F., Simcoe, R. A., et al. (2018). Similar star formation rate and metallicity variability time-scales drive the fundamental metallicity relation. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 477, L16-L20.


Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0005-CAA4-E
Abstract
The fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) is a postulated correlation between galaxy stellar mass, star formation rate (SFR), and gas-phase metallicity. At its core, this relation posits that offsets from the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) at a fixed stellar mass are correlated with galactic SFR. In this Letter, we use hydrodynamical simulations to quantify the time-scales over which populations of galaxies oscillate about the average SFR and metallicity values at fixed stellar mass. We find that Illustris and IllustrisTNG predict that galaxy offsets from the star formation main sequence and MZR oscillate over similar time- scales, are often anticorrelated in their evolution, evolve with the halo dynamical time, and produce a pronounced FMR. Our models indicate that galaxies oscillate about equilibrium SFR and metallicity values - set by the galaxy's stellar mass - and that SFR and metallicity offsets evolve in an anticorrelated fashion. This anticorrelated variability of the metallicity and SFR offsets drives the existence of the FMR in our models. In contrast to Illustris and IllustrisTNG, we speculate that the SFR and metallicity evolution tracks may become decoupled in galaxy formation models dominated by feedback-driven globally bursty SFR histories, which could weaken the FMR residual correlation strength. This opens the possibility of discriminating between bursty and non- bursty feedback models based on the strength and persistence of the FMR - especially at high redshift.