The global oxygen yield budget followed in hydrodynamic simulations.

We present new EAGLE (“Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments”, Schaye et al. 2015) zoom simulations of a range of Milky Way-like galaxies that can uniquely reproduce the metallicities of galactic stars, the ISM, and now the circumgalactic medium (CGM) as probed by quasar absorption line surveys. The surprising result is that the average L* galaxy loses more oxygen to the CGM out to hundreds of kpcs from a galaxy than it retains in its stars. These zooms not only follow the nucleosynthetic yields of 11 elements, they follow the non-equilibrium ionization and cooling of 133 ions, which allow direct comparison to observations of the COS-Halos survey of O VI in galactic halos out to 150 kpc (Tumlinson et al. 2011). The result is a new understanding of the galactic nucleosynthetic yield budget in simulations where galaxies are dramatically shaped by supernovae and black hole feedback. We are now closer to reconciling observed stellar, ISM, and now CGM metallicities with the nucleosynthetic production of the stellar component. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]