Published in Space Science Reviews, Volume 134, Issue 1-4, pp. 363-377, 2008.
astro-ph/0801.1061

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METAL ENRICHMENT PROCESSES

S. Schindler 1 and A. Diaferio 2


1 Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Sabine.Schindler@uibk.ac.at
2 Dipartimento di Fisica Generale "Amedeo Avogadro", Università degli Studi di Torino, Via P. Giuria 1, I-10125, Torino, Italy
Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), Sezione di Torino, Via P. Giuria 1, I-10125, Torino, Italy


Abstract. There are many processes that can transport gas from the galaxies to their environment and enrich the environment in this way with metals. These metal enrichment processes have a large influence on the evolution of both the galaxies and their environment. Various processes can contribute to the gas transfer: ram-pressure stripping, galactic winds, AGN outflows, galaxy-galaxy interactions and others. We review their observational evidence, corresponding simulations, their efficiencies, and their time scales as far as they are known to date. It seems that all processes can contribute to the enrichment. There is not a single process that always dominates the enrichment, because the efficiencies of the processes vary strongly with galaxy and environmental properties.


Key words: galaxies: clusters: general, ISM: jets and outflows, galaxies: ISM, galaxies: interaction


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