First direct metallicity measurement of a lensed star-forming galaxy at z=1.7

Abstract

We present the rest-frame optical spectrum of a strongly lensed galaxy at redshift z =1.7 behind the cluster Abell 1689. We detect the temperature sensitive auroral line [O III] 4363, which allows the first direct metallicity measurement for galaxies at z > 1. Our high signal-to-noise spectrum indicates that the target is an extremely low metallicity star-forming galaxy.We estimate an intrinsic absolute B band magnitude of M_{B}=-18.3 \pm 0.1$,withastellarmassof4.4$\pm1.2\times10^{8}$M$_{\odot}$. This galaxy extends the luminosity-metallicity relation of star-forming galaxies at z > 2 by more than an order of magnitude. Given the double-nuclei like morphology and velocity profile of \ha, we tentatively suggest that it could be a merger or a proto-rotating disk galaxy.

published version in ApJ Letters. 4 pages, 4 figure, 1 table. References updated

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• Gravitationally Lensed Galaxies at 2<z<3.5: Direct Abundance Measurements of Lya Emitters
• The Low Mass End of the Fundamental Relation for Gravitationally Lensed Star Forming Galaxies at 1<z<6
• Chemical abundance scaling relations for multiple elements in z~2-3 star-forming galaxies
• The metal-enriched host of an energetic gamma-ray burst at z ~ 1.6
• The BPT Diagram in Cosmological Galaxy Formation Simulations: Understanding the Physics Driving Offsets at High-Redshift
• Rest-frame UV and optical emission line diagnostics of ionised gas properties: a test case in a star-forming knot of a lensed galaxy at z~1.7
• HeII emitters at cosmic noon and beyond. Characterising the HeII λ1640 emission with MUSE and JWST/NIRSpec
• Deep inference of simulated strong lenses in ground-based surveys