Abstract

We study the cosmological evolution of the two-point correlation functions of galactic gas-phase metal distributions using the 28 simulated galaxies from the Auriga Project. Using mock observations of the z = 0 snapshots to mimic our past work, we show that the correlation functions of the simulated mock observations are well matched to the correlation functions measured from local galaxy surv e ys. This comparison suggests that the simulations capture the processes important for determining metal correlation lengths, the key parameter in metallicity correlation functions. We investigate the evolution of metallicity correlations o v er cosmic time using the true simulation data, showing that individual galaxies undergo no significant systematic evolution in their metal correlation functions from z ?3 to today. In addition, the fluctuations in metal correlation length are correlated with but lag ahead fluctuations in star formation rate. This suggests that re-arrangement of metals within galaxies occurs at a higher cadence than star formation activity, and is more sensitive to the changes of environment, such as g alaxy mergers, g as inflo ws/outflo ws, and fly-bys. © 2024 The Author(s).