Multi-element Abundance Measurements from Medium-resolution Spectra. III. Metallicity Distributions of Milky Way Dwarf Satellite Galaxies

Abstract

We present metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) for the central regions of eight dwarf satellite galaxies of the Milky Way: Fornax, Leo I and II, Sculptor, Sextans, Draco, Canes Venatici I, and Ursa Minor. We use the published catalog of abundance measurements from the previous paper in this series. The measurements are based on spectral synthesis of iron absorption lines. For each MDF, we determine maximum likelihood fits for Leaky Box, Pre-Enriched, and Extra Gas (wherein the gas supply available for star formation increases before it decreases to zero) analytic models of chemical evolution. Although the models are too simplistic to describe any MDF in detail, a Leaky Box starting from zero metallicity gas fits none of the galaxies except Canes Venatici I well. The MDFs of some galaxies, particularly the more luminous ones, strongly prefer the Extra Gas Model to the other models. Only for Canes Venatici I does the Pre-Enriched Model fit significantly better than the Extra Gas Model. The best-fit effective yields of the less luminous half of our galaxy sample do not exceed 0.02Z_⊙, indicating that gas outflow is important in the chemical evolution of the less luminous galaxies. We surmise that the ratio of the importance of gas infall to gas outflow increases with galaxy luminosity. Strong correlations of average [Fe/H] and metallicity spread with luminosity support this hypothesis.