Chemical Evolution of Blue Compact Galaxies

Abstract

Based on a sample of 72 Blue Compact Galaxies (BCGs) observed with the 2.16 m telescope of the National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC) and about 4000 strong emission line galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we analyzed their chemical evolution history using the revised chemical evolution model of Larsen et al. Our sample covers a much larger metallicity range (7.2 < 12 + log(O/H) < 9.0). We found that, in order to reproduce the observed abundance pattern and gas fraction over the whole metallicity range, a relatively continuous star formation history is needed for high metallicity galaxies, while assuming a series of instantaneous bursts with long quiescent periods (some Gyrs) for low metallicity galaxies. Model calculations also show that only the closed-box model is capable of reproducing the observational data over the whole metallicity range. Models that consider the ordinary winds and/or inflow can only fit the observations in the low metallicity range, and a model with enriched wind cannot fit the data in the whole metallicity range. This implies that the current adopted simple wind and inflow models are not applicable to massive galaxies, where the underlying physics of galactic winds or inflow could be more complicated.