Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Metal Enrichment Of The Intergalactic Medium In Cosmological Simulations, A Aguirre, L Hernquist, J Schaye, N Katz, Dh Weinberg, J Gardner

Astronomy Department Faculty Publication Series

Observations have established that the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) at z ~ 3 is enriched to ~10^-2.5 solar metallicity and that the hot gas in large clusters of galaxies (ICM) is enriched to - Z at z = 0. Metals in the IGM may have been removed from galaxies (in which they presumably form) during dynamical encounters between galaxies, by ram-pressure stripping, by supernova-driven winds, or as radiation-pressure-driven dust efflux. This study develops a method of investigating the chemical enrichment of the IGM and of galaxies, using already completed cosmological simulations. To these simulations we add dust and (gaseous) …