What Sets the Metallicity of Ultra-Faint Dwarfs?

We use intergalactic medium (IGM) metallicity distributions from several state-of-the-art cosmological simulations of Milky Way analogs and a semi-analytic model of ultra-faint dwarf galaxy (UFD) formation to model the stellar metallicities of UFDs in MW-like environments. We study simulations with different treatments of star formation, stellar feedback, and Population III enrichment, and in all cases, we find that only a few percent of the IGM accretable by UFD progenitors is enriched to metallicities \(\rm [Fe/H]\ge-4\). When the metallicity of accreted IGM in the semi-analytic galaxy formation model is set using these IGM metallicity distributions, the model underpredicts UFD metallicities and their scatter compared to the observed luminosity–metallicity relation. Our results indicate that IGM enrichment is not the dominant mechanism setting metallicities of UFD stars. Instead, UFD stellar metallicity is determined primarily by the interplay between internal enrichment and metal loss through feedback-driven outflows. We examine models with different values of the maximum outflow mass loading factor \(\eta_{\rm max}\) and show that the full range of average stellar metallicities of UFDs at \(M_V<-7\) can be reproduced if the maximum mass loading factor varies in the range \(200\lesssim\eta_{\rm max}\lesssim 2000\). We also consider stellar metallicity distribution functions (MDFs) within individual model galaxies with different assumptions about IGM enrichment and \(\eta_{\rm max}\). We find that all considered models are in reasonable agreement with observed UFD MDFs, with model differences less than the uncertainties of current metallicity measurements.