Role of disk galaxies in the chemical enrichment of the intracluster medium

Elliptical galaxies are often assumed to be the primary source of heavy ele ments in the intracluster medium (ICM), with the contribution of other morp hological types being negligible. In this paper we argue that a role of spi ral galaxies in the chemical evolution of the ICM is also important. This s tatement rests upon our recent calculations of the heavy element loss from a disk galaxy through the hot steady-state galactic wind and dust grains ex pulsion by stellar radiation pressure. This model reproduces main propertie s of our Galaxy and, being applied to galaxies of various masses, explains the observed correlation between spiral galaxy mass (luminosity) and metall icity. In our model this correlation develops as a result of the mass depen dence of both loss mechanisms, in the sense that less massive galaxies lose metals more efficiently. We show that a typical disk galaxy is nearly as e ffective in enriching the ICM as an elliptical galaxy of the same mass. Having estimated the oxygen and iron loss from a single galaxy, we integrat e them over the galactic mass spectrum. We show that the 'effective' loss ( per unit luminosity) from spiral galaxies is comparable to the loss from el lipticals. The dominant role of early-type galaxies in rich clusters is cau sed by that they outnumber spirals. We present some arguments to this point , based on recent determinations of the ICM abundances, emphasizing the fac t that the ratio of total iron mass to cluster luminosity does not depend o n the fraction of cluster spirals in a wide range of the latter, contrary t o what one might expect if spirals do not contribute into the ICM Z-abundan ce.