Element Nucleosynthetic Origins from Abundance Spatial Distributions beyond the Milky Way
An element’s astrophysical origin should be reflected in the spatial distribution of its abundance, yielding measurably different spatial distributions for elements with different nucleosynthetic sites. However, most extragalactic multielement analyses of gas-phase abundances to date have been limit...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ade7fa |
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| author | Zefeng Li Mark R. Krumholz Anna F. McLeod A. Mark Swinbank Emily Wisnioski J. Trevor Mendel Francesco Belfiore Giovanni Cresci Giacomo Venturi Jia-Lai Kang |
| author_facet | Zefeng Li Mark R. Krumholz Anna F. McLeod A. Mark Swinbank Emily Wisnioski J. Trevor Mendel Francesco Belfiore Giovanni Cresci Giacomo Venturi Jia-Lai Kang |
| author_sort | Zefeng Li |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | An element’s astrophysical origin should be reflected in the spatial distribution of its abundance, yielding measurably different spatial distributions for elements with different nucleosynthetic sites. However, most extragalactic multielement analyses of gas-phase abundances to date have been limited to small numbers of sight lines, making statistical characterization of differences in spatial distributions of elements impossible. Here we use integrated field spectroscopic data covering the full face of the nearby dwarf galaxy NGC 5253 sampled at 3.5 pc resolution to produce maps of the abundances of oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur using independent direct methods. We find strong evidence for differences in the elements’ spatial statistics that mirror their predicted nucleosynthetic origins: the spatial distributions of oxygen and sulfur, both predominantly produced in core-collapse supernovae, indicate that initial injection occurs on larger scales than for nitrogen, which is predominantly produced by asymptotic giant branch stars. All elements are well correlated, but oxygen and sulfur are much better correlated with each other than with nitrogen, consistent with recent results for stellar abundances in the Milky Way. These findings both open a new avenue to test nucleosynthetic models and make predictions for the structure of stellar chemical abundance distributions. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2a01e29f216642fe8f6b9637f1e9c7bb |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-8205 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal Letters |
| spelling | doaj-art-2a01e29f216642fe8f6b9637f1e9c7bb2025-08-20T03:49:49ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal Letters2041-82052025-01-019872L2810.3847/2041-8213/ade7faElement Nucleosynthetic Origins from Abundance Spatial Distributions beyond the Milky WayZefeng Li0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7373-3115Mark R. Krumholz1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3893-854XAnna F. McLeod2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5456-523XA. Mark Swinbank3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1192-5837Emily Wisnioski4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1657-7878J. Trevor Mendel5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6327-9147Francesco Belfiore6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2545-5752Giovanni Cresci7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5281-1417Giacomo Venturi8https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8349-3055Jia-Lai Kang9https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2280-2904Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University , South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK ; zefeng.li@durham.ac.ukResearch School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Cotter Road, Weston Creek, 2611, ACT, AustraliaCentre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University , South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK ; zefeng.li@durham.ac.ukCentre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University , South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK ; zefeng.li@durham.ac.ukResearch School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Cotter Road, Weston Creek, 2611, ACT, AustraliaResearch School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Australian National University , Cotter Road, Weston Creek, 2611, ACT, AustraliaINAF—Osservatorio Astrofisco di Arcetri , Largo E. Fermi 5, Firenze, 50127, ItalyINAF—Osservatorio Astrofisco di Arcetri , Largo E. Fermi 5, Firenze, 50127, ItalyScuola Normale Superiore , Piazza dei Cavalieri 7, Pisa, 56126, ItalyCentre for Extragalactic Astronomy, Department of Physics, Durham University , South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK ; zefeng.li@durham.ac.ukAn element’s astrophysical origin should be reflected in the spatial distribution of its abundance, yielding measurably different spatial distributions for elements with different nucleosynthetic sites. However, most extragalactic multielement analyses of gas-phase abundances to date have been limited to small numbers of sight lines, making statistical characterization of differences in spatial distributions of elements impossible. Here we use integrated field spectroscopic data covering the full face of the nearby dwarf galaxy NGC 5253 sampled at 3.5 pc resolution to produce maps of the abundances of oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur using independent direct methods. We find strong evidence for differences in the elements’ spatial statistics that mirror their predicted nucleosynthetic origins: the spatial distributions of oxygen and sulfur, both predominantly produced in core-collapse supernovae, indicate that initial injection occurs on larger scales than for nitrogen, which is predominantly produced by asymptotic giant branch stars. All elements are well correlated, but oxygen and sulfur are much better correlated with each other than with nitrogen, consistent with recent results for stellar abundances in the Milky Way. These findings both open a new avenue to test nucleosynthetic models and make predictions for the structure of stellar chemical abundance distributions.https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ade7faInterstellar mediumChemical abundancesChemical enrichment |
| spellingShingle | Zefeng Li Mark R. Krumholz Anna F. McLeod A. Mark Swinbank Emily Wisnioski J. Trevor Mendel Francesco Belfiore Giovanni Cresci Giacomo Venturi Jia-Lai Kang Element Nucleosynthetic Origins from Abundance Spatial Distributions beyond the Milky Way The Astrophysical Journal Letters Interstellar medium Chemical abundances Chemical enrichment |
| title | Element Nucleosynthetic Origins from Abundance Spatial Distributions beyond the Milky Way |
| title_full | Element Nucleosynthetic Origins from Abundance Spatial Distributions beyond the Milky Way |
| title_fullStr | Element Nucleosynthetic Origins from Abundance Spatial Distributions beyond the Milky Way |
| title_full_unstemmed | Element Nucleosynthetic Origins from Abundance Spatial Distributions beyond the Milky Way |
| title_short | Element Nucleosynthetic Origins from Abundance Spatial Distributions beyond the Milky Way |
| title_sort | element nucleosynthetic origins from abundance spatial distributions beyond the milky way |
| topic | Interstellar medium Chemical abundances Chemical enrichment |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ade7fa |
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