Aligned and misaligned metallicity gradients in young stars and star-forming regions in the EAGLE discs

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna, 4860 Santiago, Chile
² Centro de Astro-Ingeniería, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna, 4860 Santiago, Chile

^★ Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Received: 24 July 2025
Accepted: 6 February 2026

Abstract

Context. Disc galaxies exhibit radial metallicity gradients in both their stellar and gaseous components. The star-forming gas (SFG) in H II regions and young stars (YSs) trace the recent evolutionary history of the galaxy. By analysing their metallicity gradients in tandem, we can shed light on the different physical processes that interact in a complex manner, modifying the distribution of chemical elements in the discs, thereby influencing the chemical evolution of galaxies.

Aims. We aim to assess the extent to which the joint analysis of metallicity gradient alignment in YSs and SFG can constrain the recent evolutionary history of galaxies.

Methods. Using the high-resolution run of the EAGLE project, we derived radial, azimuthally averaged oxygen abundance profiles for YSs (age < 2 Gyr) and SFG and measured their gradients as the slopes of linear fits to these profiles. We classified galaxies into four groups based on the signs (N for negative and P for positive) of the slopes: NN, NP, PP, and PN (the first letter is for YSs and the second for SFG).

Results. We found that galaxies with NN, NP, PP, and PN combinations of metallicity profiles reflect different evolutionary paths over the past ∼2 Gyr. NN galaxies exhibit sustained inside-out growth accompanied by high star formation efficiency, whereas NP and PP systems show evidence of recent or ongoing feedback-driven disruption, with PP galaxies likely being predominantly shaped by supernova feedback. PN galaxies, by contrast, show evidence of past violent events followed by gradient recovery, highlighting the interplay between inflows, feedback, and gas cooling in shaping metallicity distributions.

Conclusions. The degree of alignment between the stellar and gas metallicity gradients provides a way to time the occurrence of significant events in the evolutionary history of galaxies, which contribute through a combination of gas inflows, star formation triggering, and metal mixing. They could also serve as probes of sub-grid physics when observations provide suitable comparison datasets.