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Gas Inflows, Star Formation and Metallicity Evolution in Galaxy Pairs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 December 2011

Paola Di Matteo ,
Marco Montuori ,
Matthew D. Lehnert ,
Françcoise Combes  and
Benoit Semelin
Paola Di Matteo
Affiliation:
GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot 5, Place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France email: paola.dimatteo@obspm.fr, matthew.lehnert@obspm.fr
Marco Montuori
Affiliation:
SMC-ISC-CNR & Physics Department, Universitá di Roma La Sapienza Pl. Aldo Moro 2, 00185 Rome, Italy email: montuorm@roma1.infn.it
Matthew D. Lehnert
Affiliation:
GEPI, Observatoire de Paris, CNRS, Université Paris Diderot 5, Place Jules Janssen, 92190 Meudon, France email: paola.dimatteo@obspm.fr, matthew.lehnert@obspm.fr
Françcoise Combes
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, LERMA, CNRS, UPMC 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, Francefrancoise.combes@obspm.fr, benoit.semelin@obspm.fr
Benoit Semelin
Affiliation:
Observatoire de Paris, LERMA, CNRS, UPMC 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, Francefrancoise.combes@obspm.fr, benoit.semelin@obspm.fr
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Abstract

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It has been known since many decades that galaxy interactions can induce star formation (hereafter SF) enhancements and that one of the driving mechanisms of this enhancement is related to gas inflows into the central galaxy regions, induced by asymmetries in the stellar component, like bars. In the last years many evidences have been accumulating, showing that interacting pairs have central gas-phase metallicities lower than those of field galaxies, by ~0.2–0.3 dex on average. These diluted ISM metallicities have been explained as the result of inflows of metal-poor gas from the outer disk to the galaxy central regions. A number of questions arises: What's the timing and the duration of this dilution? How and when does the SF induced by the gas inflow enrich the circum-nuclear gas with re-processed material? Is there any correlation between the timing and strength of the dilution and the timing and intensity of the SF? By means of Tree-SPH simulations of galaxy major interactions, we have studied the effect that gas inflows have on the ISM dilution, and the effect that the induced SF has, subsequently, in re-enriching the nuclear gas. In this contribution, we present the main results of this study.

Keywords

galaxies: interactionsgalaxies: evolutiongalaxies: ISMgalaxies: star formationgalaxies: starburst
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 6 , Symposium S277: Tracing the Ancestry of Galaxies (on the land of our ancestors) , December 2010 , pp. 246 - 249
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2011

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