Galactic chemical evolution: stellar yields and the initial mass function

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2015 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reservedWe present a set of 144 galactic chemical evolution models applied to a Milky Way analogue, computed using four sets of low and intermediate star nucleosynthetic yields, six massive star yield compilations, and six functional forms for the initial mass function. The integrated or true yields for each combination are derived. A comparison is made between a grid of multiphase chemical evolution models computed with these yield combinations and empirical data drawn from the Milky Way's disc, including the solar neighbourhood. By means of a chi2 methodology, applied to the results of these multiphase models, the best combination of stellar yields and initial mass function capable of reproducing these observations is identifiedThis work has been supported by DGICYT grant AYA2010-21887-C04-02. Also, partial support from the Comunidad de Madrid under grant CAM S2009/ESP-1496 (AstroMadrid) is grateful. This work has been financially supported by the grant numbers 2010/18835-3, 2012/22236-3 and 2012/01017-1, from the Säo Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP