Modelling increased metal production in galaxy clusters with pair-instability supernovae

Galaxy clusters contain much more metal per star, typically three times as much, than is produced in normal galaxies. We set out to determine what changes are needed to the stellar mass function and supernovae rates to account for this excess metal. In particular, we vary the Type Ia supernovae rate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2014-07, Vol.441 (3), p.2134-2147
Main Authors: Morsony, Brian J., Heath, Caitlin, Workman, Jared C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemical elements
Computer simulation
Mathematical functions
Metals
Star & galaxy formation
Supernovae
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Summary:Galaxy clusters contain much more metal per star, typically three times as much, than is produced in normal galaxies. We set out to determine what changes are needed to the stellar mass function and supernovae rates to account for this excess metal. In particular, we vary the Type Ia supernovae rate, initial-mass function (IMF) slope, upper and lower mass cutoffs, and the merger rate of massive stars. We then use existing simulation results for metal production from AGB stars, Type Ia SNe and core-collapse SNe to calculate the total amount of each element produced per solar mass of star formation. For models with very massive stars, we also include metal production from pair-instability supernovae (PISNe). We find that including PISNe makes it much easier to increase the amount of metal produced per stellar mass. Therefore a separate population of high-mass stars is not needed to produce the high amounts of metal found in galaxy clusters. We also find that including at least some PISNe increases the abundance of intermediate-mass elements relative to both oxygen and iron, consistent with observations of ICM abundances.
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stu502