Diffuse gas properties and stellar metallicities in cosmological simulations of disc galaxy formation

We analyse the properties of the circum-galactic medium and the relation between its metal content and that of the stars comprising the central galaxy in eight hydrodynamical ‘zoom-in’ simulations of disc galaxy formation. The simulations employ the moving-mesh code arepo combined with a comprehensive model for the galaxy formation physics, and succeed in forming realistic late-type spirals in the set of ‘Aquarius’ initial conditions of Milky Way-sized haloes. Galactic winds signicantly inuence the morphology of the circum-galactic medium and induce bipolar features in the distribution of heavy elements. They also aect the thermodynamic properties of the circum-galactic gas by supplying an energy input that sustains its radiative losses. Although a signicant fraction of the heavy elements are transferred from the central galaxy to the halo, and even beyond the virial radius, the overall stellar metallicity distribution is broadly consistent with observations, apart from an overestimate of the [O/Fe] ratio in our default runs, an eect that can however be rectied by an increase of the adopted SN type Ia rate. All our simulations have diculty in producing stellar metallicity gradients of the same strength as observed in the Milky Way.

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