Measuring the mixing scale of the ISM within nearby spiral galaxies
Article
Kreckel, Kathryn, Ho, I. -Ting, Blanc, Guillermo A., Glover, Simon C. O., Groves, Brent, Rosolowsky, Erik, Bigiel, Frank, Boquíen, Médéric, Chevance, Mélanie, Dale, Daniel A., Deger, Sinan, Emsellem, Eric, Grasha, Kathryn, Kim, Jenny J., Klessen, Ralf S., Kruijssen, J. M. Diederik, Lee, Janice C., Leroy, Adam K., Liu, Daizhong, ..., Williams, Thomas G.. 2020. "Measuring the mixing scale of the ISM within nearby spiral galaxies." Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 499 (1), pp. 193-209. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa2743
| Article Title | Measuring the mixing scale of the ISM within nearby spiral galaxies |
|---|---|
| ERA Journal ID | 1074 |
| Article Category | Article |
| Authors | Kreckel, Kathryn, Ho, I. -Ting, Blanc, Guillermo A., Glover, Simon C. O., Groves, Brent, Rosolowsky, Erik, Bigiel, Frank, Boquíen, Médéric, Chevance, Mélanie, Dale, Daniel A., Deger, Sinan, Emsellem, Eric, Grasha, Kathryn, Kim, Jenny J., Klessen, Ralf S., Kruijssen, J. M. Diederik, Lee, Janice C., Leroy, Adam K., Liu, Daizhong, McElroy, Rebecca, Meidt, Sharon E., Pessa, Ismael, Sanchez-Blazquez, Patricia, Sandstrom, Karin, Santoro, Francesco, Scheuermann, Fabian, Schinnerer, Eva, Schruba, Andreas, Utomo, Dyas, Watkins, Elizabeth J. and Williams, Thomas G. |
| Journal Title | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
| Journal Citation | 499 (1), pp. 193-209 |
| Number of Pages | 193-209 |
| Year | 2020 |
| 01 Nov 2020 | |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
| ISSN | 0035-8711 |
| 1365-2966 | |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staa2743 |
| Web Address (URL) | https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/499/1/193/5905731 |
| Abstract | The spatial distribution of metals reflects, and can be used to constrain, the processes of chemical enrichment and mixing. Using PHANGS-MUSE optical integral field spectroscopy, we measure the gas-phase oxygen abundances (metallicities) across 7138 H II regions in a sample of eight nearby disc galaxies. In Paper I, we measure and report linear radial gradients in the metallicities of each galaxy, and qualitatively searched for azimuthal abundance variations. Here, we examine the 2D variation in abundances once the radial gradient is subtracted, Δ(O/H), in order to quantify the homogeneity of the metal distribution and to measure the mixing scale over which H II region metallicities are correlated. We observe low (0.03-0.05 dex) scatter in Δ(O/H) globally in all galaxies, with significantly lower (0.02-0.03 dex) scatter on small (<600 pc) spatial scales. This is consistent with the measurement uncertainties, and implies the 2D metallicity distribution is highly correlated on scales of ≲600 pc. We compute the two-point correlation function for metals in the disc in order to quantify the scale lengths associated with the observed homogeneity. This mixing scale is observed to correlate better with the local gas velocity dispersion (of both cold and ionized gas) than with the star formation rate. Selecting only H II regions with enhanced abundances relative to a linear radial gradient, we do not observe increased homogeneity on small scales. This suggests that the observed homogeneity is driven by the mixing introducing material from large scales rather than by pollution from recent and on-going star formation. |
| Keywords | ISM: abundances ; ISM: evolution; galaxies: abundances; galaxies: ISM |
| Contains Sensitive Content | Does not contain sensitive content |
| ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 510102. Astronomical instrumentation |
| Public Notes | This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. |
| Byline Affiliations | Heidelberg University, Germany |
| Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany | |
| Carnegie Institution for Science, United States | |
| University of Chile, Chile | |
| University of Western Australia | |
| University of Alberta, Canada | |
| University of Bonn, Germany | |
| University of Antofagasta, Chile | |
| University of Wyoming, United States | |
| California Institute of Technology (Caltech), United States | |
| University of Lyon, France | |
| Australian National University | |
| Ohio State University, United States | |
| School of Mathematics, Physics and Computing | |
| University of Gent, Belgium | |
| Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain | |
| University of California San Diego, United States | |
| Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, Germany |
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https://research.usq.edu.au/item/z75vx/measuring-the-mixing-scale-of-the-ism-within-nearby-spiral-galaxies
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