The enrichment history of cosmic metals

Abstract

We use a suite of cosmological, hydrodynamical simulations to investigate the chemical enrichment history of the Universe. Specifically, we trace the origin of the metals back in time to investigate when various gas phases were enriched and by what halo masses. We find that the age of the metals decreases strongly with the density of the gas in which they end up. At least half of the metals that reside in the diffuse intergalactic medium (IGM) at z= 0 (z= 2) were ejected from galaxies above z= 2 (z= 3). The mass of the haloes that last contained the metals increases rapidly with the gas density. More than half of the mass in intergalactic metals was ejected by haloes with total masses less than 1011 M and stellar masses less than 109 M. The range of halo masses that contribute to the enrichment is wider for the hotter part of the IGM. By combining the 'when' and 'by what' aspects of the enrichment history, we show that metals residing in the lower density gas were typically ejected earlier and by lower mass haloes. © 2010 The Authors. Journal compilation © 2010 RAS.