Inflow-driven galaxy evolution - I. Revealing the physics of the fundamental metallicity relation

We present a unified physical framework for the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR), based on the mass-continuity equations.

We present a unified physical framework for the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR), based on the mass-continuity equations. The FMR is not merely the anti-correlation between star formation rate (SFR) and gas metallicity ($Z_{\rm g}$) at fixed stellar mass ($M_\star$); it is…