1. Rest-UV absorption lines as metallicity estimator: the metal content of star-forming galaxies at Z ∼ 5
- Author
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O. Ilbert, H. J. McCracken, Clotilde Laigle, John D. Silverman, Günther Hasinger, Mara Salvato, Lin Yan, Peter Capak, Y. Kakazu, D. B. Sanders, Nick Scoville, Bahram Mobasher, Masato Onodera, I. Davidzon, D. Masters, Andreas L. Faisst, Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Excellence Cluster Universe, excellence cluster centre, Centre de résonance magnétique biologique et médicale (CRMBM), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Marseille (APHM)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille (LAM), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES), Institute for Astronomy [Zürich], Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology [Zürich] (ETH Zürich), Institute for Astronomy [Honolulu], University of Hawai‘i [Mānoa] (UHM), Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris (IAP), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC), Space Telescope Science Institute (STSci), AUTRES, California Institute of Technology (CALTECH), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Aix Marseille Université (AMU)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National d'Études Spatiales [Toulouse] (CNES)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
- Subjects
Physics ,Stellar mass ,010308 nuclear & particles physics ,Metallicity ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics::Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,01 natural sciences ,Billion years ,Galaxy ,Stars ,13. Climate action ,Space and Planetary Science ,Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) ,0103 physical sciences ,Galaxy formation and evolution ,[PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph] ,010303 astronomy & astrophysics ,Stellar evolution ,Astrophysics::Galaxy Astrophysics ,Cosmic dust - Abstract
We measure a relation between the depth of four prominent rest-UV absorption complexes and metallicity for local galaxies and verify it up to z~3. We then apply this relation to a sample of 224 galaxies at 3.5 < z < 6.0 ( = 4.8) in COSMOS, for which unique UV spectra from DEIMOS and accurate stellar masses from SPLASH are available. The average galaxy population at z~5 and log(M/Msun) > 9 is characterized by 0.3-0.4 dex (in units of 12+log(O/H)) lower metallicities than at z~2, but comparable to z~3.5. We find galaxies with weak/no Ly-alpha emission to have metallicities comparable to z~2 galaxies and therefore may represent an evolved sub-population of z~5 galaxies. We find a correlation between metallicity and dust in good agreement with local galaxies and an inverse trend between metallicity and star-formation rate (SFR) consistent with observations at z~2. The relation between stellar mass and metallicity (MZ relation) is similar to z~3.5, however, there are indications of it being slightly shallower, in particular for the young, Ly-alpha emitting galaxies. We show that, within a "bathtub" approach, a shallower MZ relation is expected in the case of a fast (exponential) build-up of stellar mass with an e-folding time of 100-200 Myr. Due to this fast evolution, the process of dust production and metal enrichment as a function of mass could be more stochastic in the first billion years of galaxy formation compared to later times., 20 pages, 13 figures, 4 tables; Submitted to ApJ
- Published
- 2019
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