In-Situ Star Formation in a Thick Disk: A Model for Metal Enrichment of Mrk 573
Abstract
Recent observations of the nearby Seyfert galaxy Mrk 573 found that the galactic nucleus and bicone regions surrounding the jet are significantly metal-enriched. In this paper, we develop a simple model for the observed metal enrichment, assuming a population of stars in the 10 − 30 M⊙ range formed in-situ in the accretion disk. We assume the stars form according to a Salpeter initial mass function and generate the typical metal yields expected of field stars of the same mass. We find that in the thick disk (H/r ∼ 0.1) case, a Salpeter population of stars can easily explain the observed metal enrichment and provide limits on the formation model; we also argue that a thin disk (H/r ≲ 0.01) is incompatible with the observed metal enrichment. In our model, AGN metallicity scales most strongly with disk thickness, implying a potentially powerful observable diagnostic.
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BibTeX
@misc{gerlingdunsmore2026insitu,
title = {{In-Situ Star Formation in a Thick Disk: A Model for Metal Enrichment of Mrk 573}},
author = {Hannalore J. Gerling-Dunsmore and Mitchell C. Begelman and Jared A. Goldberg and Taeho Ryu and Dominika Ł. Król},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.27048},
eprint = {2609.27048},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27048},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - In-Situ Star Formation in a Thick Disk: A Model for Metal Enrichment of Mrk 573
AU - Hannalore J. Gerling-Dunsmore
AU - Mitchell C. Begelman
AU - Jared A. Goldberg
AU - Taeho Ryu
AU - Dominika Ł. Król
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.27048
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27048
AB - Recent observations of the nearby Seyfert galaxy Mrk 573 found that the galactic nucleus and bicone regions surrounding the jet are significantly metal-enriched. In this paper, we develop a simple model for the observed metal enrichment, assuming a population of stars in the 10 − 30 M_⊙ range formed in-situ in the accretion disk. We assume the stars form according to a Salpeter initial mass function and generate the typical metal yields expected of field stars of the same mass. We find that in the thick disk (H/r ∼ 0.1) case, a Salpeter population of stars can easily explain the observed metal enrichment and provide limits on the formation model; we also argue that a thin disk (H/r ≲ 0.01) is incompatible with the observed metal enrichment. In our model, AGN metallicity scales most strongly with disk thickness, implying a potentially powerful observable diagnostic.
ER -