2023ApJS..264...44G

This is the first of a series of papers that will introduce a user-friendly, detailed, and modular Galactic Chemical Evolution Model, GalCEM, that tracks isotope masses as a function of time in a given galaxy. The list of tracked isotopes automatically adapts to the complete set provided by the input yields. The present iteration of GalCEM tracks 86 elements broken down into 451 isotopes. The prescription includes massive stars, low-to-intermediate-mass stars, and Type Ia supernovae as enrichment channels. We have developed a preprocessing tool that extracts multidimensional interpolation curves from the input yield tables. These interpolation curves improve the computation speeds of the full convolution integrals, which are computed for each isotope and for each enrichment channel. We map the integrand quantities onto consistent array grids in order to perform the numerical integration at each time step. The differential equation is solved with a fourth-order Runge-Kutta method. We constrain our analysis to the evolution of all light and intermediate elements from carbon to zinc, and lithium. Our results are consistent up to the extremely metal-poor regime with Galactic abundances. We provide tools to track the mass rate change of individual isotopes on a typical spiral galaxy with a final baryonic mass of 5 × 10¹⁰M_⊙. Future iterations of the work will extend to the full periodic table by including the enrichment from neutron-capture channels as well as spatially dependent treatments of galaxy properties. GalCEM is publicly available at https://github.com/egjergo/GalCEM.