Astraeus V: the emergence and evolution of metallicity scaling relations during the epoch of reionization

Abstract

In this work, we have implemented a detailed physical model of galaxy chemical enrichment into the ASTRAEUS (seminumerical rAdiative tranSfer coupling of galaxy formaTion and Reionization in N-body dark matter simUlationS) framework which couples galaxy formation and reionization in the first billion years. Simulating galaxies spanning over 2.5 orders of magnitude in halo mass with Mh∼108.9−1011.5M⊙ (⁠Mh∼108.9−1012.8M⊙⁠) at z ∼ 10 (5), we find: (i) smooth accretion of metal-poor gas from the intergalactic medium (IGM) plays a key role in diluting the interstellar medium interstellar medium metallicity which is effectively restored due to self-enrichment from star formation; (ii) a redshift averaged gas-mass loading factor that depends on the stellar mass as ηg≈1.38(M∗/1010M⊙)−0.43⁠; (iii) the mass–metallicity relation is already in place at z ∼ 10 and shows effectively no redshift evolution down to z ∼ 5; (iv) for a given stellar mass, the metallicity decreases with an increase in the star formation rate (SFR); (v) the key properties of the gas-phase metallicity (in units of 12 + log(O/H), stellar mass, SFR and redshift are linked through a high-redshift fundamental plane of metallicity (HFPZ) for which we provide a functional form; (vi) the mass–metallicity–SFR relations are effectively independent of the reionization radiative feedback model for M∗∼>106.5M⊙ galaxies; (vii) while low-mass galaxies (⁠Mh∼<109M⊙⁠) are the key contributors to the metal budget of the IGM at early times, higher mass haloes provide about 50 per cent of the metal budget at lower redshifts.