Linear gas-consumption law (source code)

= Linear gas-consumption law
{title2=$\psi=\epsilon M_g$}

A linear gas-consumption law assumes that the net rate of locking mass into long-lived stars is proportional to the gas mass, $\psi=\epsilon M_g$, with constant $\epsilon$. In a <leaky-box model of galactic chemical evolution> with ambient-metallicity outflow $\alpha\psi$, gas mass decays as $M_g=M_{g,0}e^{-(1+\alpha)\epsilon t}$, while <gas-phase metallicity> grows as $Z=Z_0+p\epsilon t$. The wind changes the time to consume gas but, under these assumptions, not the enrichment rate at a given time.