Yves Revaz

Yves Revaz is a scientist at LASTRO/EPFL. After successful studies in physics at EPFL, he accomplished his PhD entitled: "Dynamics of external regions of spiral galaxies and constraints on the dark matter", at the Geneva Observatory in the galactic dynamics group of Prof. D. Pfenniger. He then moved to the Paris Observatory to work at the LERMA (Laboratory for Studies of Radiation and Matter in Astrophysics) under the supervision of Prof. F. Combes on the understanding of cooling flows in galaxy clusters. He joined LASTRO at EPFL in 2007, where, in collaboration with Pascale Jablonka, he developed a new TreePM/SPH chemo-dynamical code called GEAR, designed to study the chemical evolution of galaxies. His current main research focus on the evolution of dwarf spheroidal galaxies and their link with the cosmology. Yves Revaz is also the author of pNbody, a parallelized python toolbox designed to manipulate large N-body systems.

How much metal did the first stars provide to the ultra-faint dwarfs?

Pascale Jablonka, Yves Revaz, Mahsa Sanati

Numerical simulations of dwarf galaxies have so far failed to reproduce the observed metallicity-luminosity relation, down to the regime of ultra-faint dwarfs (UFDs). We address this issue by exploring how the first generations of metal-free stars (Pop III) could help increase the mean metallicity ([Fe/H]) of those small and faint galaxies. We ran zoom-in chemo-dynamical simulations of 19 halos extracted from a Lambda Cold Dark Matter (CDM) cosmological box and followed their evolution down to redshift z=0. Models were validated not only on the basis of galaxy global properties, but also on the detailed investigation of the stellar abundance ratios ([alpha/Fe]). We identified the necessary conditions for the formation of the first stars in mini-halos and derived constraints on the metal ejection schemes. The impact of Pop III stars on the final metallicity of UFDs was evaluated by considering different stellar mass ranges for their initial mass function (IMF), the influence of pair-instability supernovae (PISNe), and their energetic feedback, as well as the metallicity threshold that marks the transition from the first massive stars to the formation of low-mass long-lived stars. The inclusion of Pop III stars with masses below 140 M-circle dot, and a standard IMF slope of -1.3 does increase the global metallicity of UFDs, although these are insufficient to resolve the tension with observations. The PISNe with progenitor masses above 140 M-circle dot do allow the metal content of UFDs to further increase. However, as PISNe are very rare and sometimes absent in the faintest UFDs, they have a limited impact on the global faint end of the metallicity-luminosity relation. Despite a limited number of spectroscopically confirmed members in UFDs, which make the stellar metallicity distribution of some UFDs uncertain, our analysis reveals that this is essentially the metal-rich tail that is missing in the models. The remaining challenges are thus both observational and numerical: (i) to extend high-resolution spectroscopy data samples and confirm the mean metallicity of the faintest UFDs; and (ii) to explain the presence of chemically enriched stars in galaxies with very short star formation histories.

EDP SCIENCES S A2023

Stellar metallicity gradients of Local Group dwarf galaxies

Pascale Jablonka, Yves Revaz

Aims. We explore correlations between the strength of metallicity gradients in Local Group dwarf galaxies and their stellar mass, star formation history timescales, and environment. Methods. We performed a homogeneous analysis of literature spectroscopic data of red giant stars and determined radial metallicity profiles for 30 Local Group dwarf galaxies. This is the largest compilation of this type to date. Results. The dwarf galaxies in our sample show a variety of metallicity profiles, most of them decreasing with radius and some with rather steep profiles. The derived metallicity gradients as a function of the half-light radius, del([Fe/H]) (R/ R-e), show no statistical differences when compared with the morphological type of the galaxies, nor with their distance from the Milky Way or M31. No correlations are found with either stellar mass or star formation timescales. In particular, we do not find the linear relation between del([Fe/H])(R/R-e) and the galaxy median age t(50), which has been reported in the literature for a set of simulated systems. On the other hand, the high angular momentum in some of our galaxies does not seem to affect the gradient strengths. The strongest gradients in our sample are observed in systems that are likely to have experienced a past merger event. When these merger candidates are excluded, the analysed dwarf galaxies show mild gradients (similar to-0.1 dex R-e(-1)) with little scatter between them, regardless of their stellar mass, dynamical state, and their star formation history. These results agree well with different sets of simulations presented in the literature that were analysed using the same method as for the observed dwarf galaxies. Conclusions. The interplay between the multitude of factors that could drive the formation of metallicity gradients likely combine in complex ways to produce in general comparable mild del([Fe/H])(R/R-e) values, regardless of stellar mass and star formation history. The strongest driver of steep gradients seems to be previous dwarf-dwarf merger events in a system.

EDP SCIENCES S A2022

How much metal did the first stars provide to the ultra-faint dwarfs?

Pascale Jablonka, Yves Revaz, Mahsa Sanati

EDP SCIENCES S A2023

Stellar metallicity gradients of Local Group dwarf galaxies

Pascale Jablonka, Yves Revaz

EDP SCIENCES S A2022

How much metal did the first stars provide to the ultra-faint dwarfs?

Stellar metallicity gradients of Local Group dwarf galaxies (Corrigendum) (vol 665, artn A92, 2022)

Stellar metallicity gradients of Local Group dwarf galaxies

How much metal did the first stars provide to the ultra-faint dwarfs?

Stellar metallicity gradients of Local Group dwarf galaxies (Corrigendum) (vol 665, artn A92, 2022)

Stellar metallicity gradients of Local Group dwarf galaxies