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A departure from the mass–metallicity relation in merging galaxies due to an infall of metal-poor gas

Nature Astronomy volume 8, pages 368–376 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Heavy element accumulation and stellar mass assembly are fundamental processes in the formation and evolution of galaxies. However, the key elements that govern them, such as gas accretion and outflow, are not fully understood. This is especially true for luminous and massive galaxies, which usually suffer strong feedback as massive outflows and large-scale gas accretion triggered by galaxy interactions. Using a sample of 77 luminous infrared (IR) galaxies, we derive chemical abundances using new diagnostics based on nebular IR lines, which peer through their dusty medium and allow us to include the obscured metals. In contrast to optically based studies, our analysis reveals that most luminous IR galaxies remain close to the mass–metallicity relation. Four galaxies with extreme star formation rates (>60 M⊙ yr−1) in their late-merger stages show strongly depressed metallicities (12 + log(O/H) ≈ 7.7–8.1) along with solar-like N/O ratios, indicative of gas mixing processes and suggesting the action of massive infall of metal-poor gas in a short phase, eventually followed by rapid enrichment. These results challenge the classical gas equilibrium scenario applied to main-sequence galaxies, suggesting that chemical enrichment and stellar-mass growth in luminous IR galaxies likely occur via mergers, driving these galaxies out of chemical equilibrium.

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Fig. 1: Scaling relations for log(N/O).
Fig. 2: Mass–metallicity relation for our sample of SFGs.
Fig. 3: Relations between SFR, stellar mass and metallicity.

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Data availability

Data supporting this study will be publicly available at the Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg (CDS) via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/.

Code availability

All versions of the HII-CHI-Mistry code are publicly available at: http://www.iaa.csic.es/~epm/HII-CHI-mistry.html.

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Acknowledgements

B.P.-D., E.P.-M. and J.M.V. acknowledge financial support from the grant CEX2021-001131-S funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033. B.P.-D., E.P.-M. and J.M.V. also acknowledge support from the Spanish MINECO grants 2016-79724-C4-4-P and PID2019-107408GB-C44. J.A.F.-O. acknowledges financial support by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and ‘ERDF A way of making Europe’ though the grant PID2021-124918NB-C44; MCIN and the European Union – NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Facility project ICTS-MRR-2021-03-CEFCA. R.A. acknowledges support from ANID Fondecyt Regular 1202007.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, Granada, Spain

    Borja Pérez-Díaz, Enrique Pérez-Montero & José M. Vílchez

  2. Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón (CEFCA), Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Teruel, Spain

    Juan A. Fernández-Ontiveros

  3. Instituto de Investigación Multidisciplinar en Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile

    Ricardo Amorín

  4. Departamento de Astronomía, Universidad de La Serena, La Serena, Chile

    Ricardo Amorín

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B.P.-D., E.P.-M. and J.A.F.-O. authored the draft version of this paper. B.P.-D. and J.A.F.-O. compiled the sample of galaxies from the literature as well as all the ancillary data required for the analysis. E.P.-M. and B.P.-D. developed the code used to estimate chemical abundances. J.M.V. and R.A. supervised the models, contributed to interpreting the results and contributed to the improvement of this manuscript.

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Correspondence to Borja Pérez-Díaz, Enrique Pérez-Montero or Juan A. Fernández-Ontiveros.

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Pérez-Díaz, B., Pérez-Montero, E., Fernández-Ontiveros, J.A. et al. A departure from the mass–metallicity relation in merging galaxies due to an infall of metal-poor gas. Nat Astron 8, 368–376 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-023-02171-x

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