The Chemical Evolution of Starburst Nucleus Galaxies

The metallicities derived from spectroscopic observations of a sample of Starburst Nucleus Galaxies (SBNGs) are compared to those of several other types of galaxies (normal giant galaxies, Irregular and HII galaxies) drawn from the literature. The SBNGs are deficient in metals with respect to normal galaxies of same morphological type, suggesting that - SBNGs are galaxies still in the process of formation. Breaking the SBNGs into early-types (Sb and earlier) and late-types reveals that the former seem to follow the same linear luminosity-metallicity relation as the irregular and elliptical galaxies, whereas the latter and the giant spirals show comparable (0.2 and 0.3 dex) excess abundances with respect to the linear relation. This difference between the two types of SBNGs is consistent with the predictions of the model of hierarchical formation of galaxies: the early-type SBNGs are building their bulges by successive mergers of small stellar and gaseous systems, while the late-type SBNGs are mostly accreting gas to form a disk.