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arXiv · 2501.07443

Metal-THINGS: The Milky Way twin candidate NGC 3521

L. S. Pilyugin·M. A. Lara-Lopez·G. Tautvaisiene·I. A. Zinchenko·L. R. Garduno·M. E. De Rossi·J. Zaragoza-Cardiel·S. Dib·G. Vale
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Abstract

The 3D spectrophotometry measurements of the galaxy NGC~3521, a structural Milky Way analogue (sMWA), were carried out within the Metal-THINGS project. We found that the oxygen abundance in the inner part of NGC~3521 is at a nearly constant level and the O/H gradient is negative at larger radii. The change in the N/H with radius is similar to that for O/H. The radial distributions of the O/H, the gas mass fraction, and the effective oxygen yield in NGC~3521 are compared to that of the Milky Way (MW), with the aim of examining the similarity in their chemical evolutions. The O/H of two HII regions closest to the centre of the MW (at a radii of 4-5 kpc) are close to the binned O/H in NGC~3521 at the same galactocentric distances. The O/H in the outer part of the MW are lower than those in the outer part of NGC~3521. The gas mass fraction in the outer part of the MW is higher than in NGC~3521. The obtained values of the effective oxygen yield, Yeff, in NGC~3521 are close to the empirical estimation of the oxygen yield, Yo. This suggests that mass exchange with the surroundings plays little to no role in the chemical evolution of NGC3521. The values of the Yeff in the MW were determined using two variants of the distribution of the gas mass surface density. The values of the Yeff in the MW obtained with the first distribution are also close to Yo. The Yeff in the MW obtained with the second distribution are below Yo at radii between 6 and 10.4 kpc. This suggests that the mass exchange with the surroundings can play a significant role in the chemical evolution of this part of the MW. To draw a solid conclusion about the role of mass exchange with the surroundings in the chemical evolution of the MW it is essential to determine which of these distributions provides a more adequate description of the gas distribution in the MW.

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L. S. Pilyugin, M. A. Lara-Lopez, G. Tautvaisiene, I. A. Zinchenko, L. R. Garduno, M. E. De Rossi, J. Zaragoza-Cardiel, S. Dib, G. Vale. 2025-01-13. Metal-THINGS: The Milky Way twin candidate NGC 3521. https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.07443

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