The escape-speed scaling of wind mass loading makes the proposed trend dynamically plausible: the shallower Newtonian gravitational potential of a dwarf galaxy lets stellar feedback expel more gas per unit stellar mass. If coupled feedback supplies specific energy , escape requires ; fixed coupling suggests for an energy-driven outflow. Fixed specific momentum instead gives , or for a momentum-driven outflow.
Since escape velocity has , galaxies whose characteristic radius grows more slowly than their gravitating mass have increasing binding energy per unit mass with increasing mass. For with , the energy-driven outflow estimate gives . Equivalently, greater velocity dispersion in massive spheroids implies greater escape energy and more effective retention of metals.
For scale, one core-collapse supernova of per formed supplies about before coupling losses. At ten percent coupling the energetic upper estimate is about for , but about for . Efficient loss from shallow potentials and retention in deep potentials can span the required range. These are illustrative energetics rather than a unique prediction: cooling, entrainment, fallback and the actual initial mass function determine the escaping mass-loading factor.