Chemical evolution of the Galaxy disk in connection with large-scale winds

Abstract

AbstractComparison of elemental abundance features between old and young thin disk stars may reveal the action of ravaging winds from the Galactic bulge, which once enriched the whole disk, and set up the steep abundance gradient in the inner disk (RGC ≲ 10–;12 kpc) and simultaneously the metallicity floor ([Fe/H]~ −0.5) in the outer disk. After the end of a crucial influence by winds, chemical enrichment through accretion of a metal-poor material from the halo onto the disk gradually reduced the metallicity of the inner region, whereas an increase in the metallicity proceeded beyond a solar circle. This results in a flattening of abundance gradient in the inner disk, and our chemical evolution models confirm this mechanism for a flattening, which is in good agreement with the observations. Our scenario also naturally explains an observed break in the metallicity floor of the outer disk by young stars since the limit of self-enrichment in the outer disk is supposed to be [Fe/H]≲ −1 and inevitably incurs a direct influence of the dilution by a low-metal infall whose metallicity is [Fe/H]~ −1. Accordingly, we propose that the enrichment by large-scale winds is a crucial factor for chemical evolution of the disk, and claim to reconsider the models thus far for the disk including the solar neighborhood, in which the metallicity is predicted to monotonously increase with time. Furthermore, we anticipate that a flattening of abundance gradient together with a metal-rich floor in the outer disk are the hallmark of disk galaxies with significant central bulges.