A Recalibration of Strong Line Oxygen Abundance Diagnostics via the Direct Method and Implications for the High Redshift Universe

Abstract

We use direct method oxygen abundances in combination with strong optical emission lines, stellar masses ($M_{\star }$), and star formation rates (SFRs) to recalibrate the N2, O3N2, and N2O2 oxygen abundance diagnostics. We stack spectra of $\sim$200,000 star-forming galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey in bins of $M_{\star }$ and SFR offset from the star forming main sequence to measure the weak emission lines needed to apply the direct method. All three new calibrations are reliable to within $\pm 0.10$ dex from $\log (M_{\star }/M_{\odot })\sim 7.5-10.5$ and up to at least $200M_{\odot }$ yr${}^{-1}$ in SFR. The N2O2 diagnostic is the least subject to systematic biases. We apply the diagnostics to galaxies in the local universe and investigate the $M_{\star }$-$Z$-$\mathrm{SFR}$ relation. The N2 and O3N2 diagnostics suggest the SFR dependence of the $M_{\star }$-$Z$-$\mathrm{SFR}$ relation varies with both $M_{\star }$ and $\Delta \log (SSFR)$, whereas the N2O2 diagnostic suggests a nearly constant dependence on SFR. We apply our calibrations to a sample of high redshift galaxies from the literature, and find them to be metal poor relative to local galaxies with similar $M_{\star }$ and SFR. The calibrations do reproduce direct method abundances of the local analogs. We conclude that the $M_{\star }$-$Z$-$\mathrm{SFR}$ relation evolves with redshift.

21 pages, 14 figures. Resubmitted to MNRAS. For a brief video explaining this paper, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpoeguZi2X4

References in corpus (35)

• The Host Galaxies and Classification of Active Galactic Nuclei
• Star Formation in AEGIS Field Galaxies since z=1.1 : The Dominance of Gradually Declining Star Formation, and the Main Sequence of Star-Forming Galaxies
• Overview of the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey: Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory
• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe
• Astrophysics Source Code Library
• The Mass-Metallicity Relation at z~2
• Evolutionary Stellar Population Synthesis with MILES. Part I: The Base Models and a New Line Index System
• Cosmological Simulations of Intergalactic Medium Enrichment from Galactic Outflows
• Strong Nebular Line Ratios in the Spectra of z~2-3 Star-forming Galaxies: First Results from KBSS-MOSFIRE
• The Origin of the Galaxy Mass-Metallicity Relation and Implications for Galactic Outflows
• The MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field (MOSDEF) Survey: Rest-Frame Optical Spectroscopy for ~1500 H-Selected Galaxies at 1.37 < z < 3.8
• Non-linear Least Squares Fitting in IDL with MPFIT
• Clues to the Origin of the Mass-Metallicity Relation: Dependence on Star Formation Rate and Galaxy Size
• The Universal Relation of Galactic Chemical Evolution: The Origin of the Mass-Metallicity Relation
• Medium-resolution Isaac Newton Telescope library of empirical spectra - II. The stellar atmospheric parameters
• Extragalactic chemical abundances: do HII regions and young stars tell the same story? The case of the spiral galaxy NGC 300
• The MOSDEF Survey: Mass, Metallicity, and Star-formation Rate at z~2.3
• The MOSDEF Survey: Excitation Properties of $z\sim 2.3$ Star-forming Galaxies
• Galaxies with Wolf-Rayet signatures in the low-redshift Universe - A survey using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Resolving the electron temperature discrepancies in HII Regions and Planetary Nebulae: kappa-distributed electrons
• CHAOS I: Direct Chemical Abundances for HII Regions in NGC 628
• On the abundance discrepancy problem in HII regions
• IZI: Inferring the Gas Phase Metallicity (Z) and Ionization Parameter (q) of Ionized Nebulae using Bayesian Statistics
• HST morphologies of local Lyman break galaxy analogs I: Evidence for starbursts triggered by merging
• The Diverse Properties of the Most Ultraviolet Luminous Galaxies Discovered by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer
• A Critical Look at the Mass-Metallicity-SFR Relation in the Local Universe. I. An Improved Analysis Framework and Confounding Systematics
• P-MaNGA: Emission Lines Properties - Gas Ionisation and Chemical Abundances from Prototype Observations
• The mass-metallicity and fundamental metallicity relations at z>2 using VLT and Subaru near-infrared spectroscopy of zCOSMOS galaxies
• [ArIII]/[OIII] and [SIII]/[OIII]: well-behaved oxygen abundance indicators for HII regions and star forming galaxies
• First direct metallicity measurement of a lensed star-forming galaxy at z=1.7
• The Young and the Dustless: Interpreting Radio Observations of UltraViolet Luminous Galaxies
• The Relationship between Stellar Mass, Gas Metallicity, and Star Formation Rate for Halpha-selected Galaxies at z~0.8 from the NewHalpha Survey
• The direct oxygen abundances of metal-rich galaxies derived from electron temperature
• The Zwicky Transient Facility
• Direct Method Gas Phase Oxygen Abundances of 4 Lyman Break Analogs

Cited by in corpus (47)

• De Re Metallica: The cosmic chemical evolution of galaxies
• Understanding Galaxy Evolution through Emission Lines
• New fully empirical calibrations of strong-line metallicity indicators in star forming galaxies
• The MOSDEF Survey: The Evolution of the Mass-Metallicity Relation from $z=0$ to $z\sim 3.3$
• The MOSDEF Survey: Direct-Method Metallicities and ISM Conditions at $z\sim 1.5-3.5$
• MUFASA: Galaxy star formation, gas, and metal properties across cosmic time
• The MOSDEF survey: a stellar mass-SFR-metallicity relation exists at $z\sim 2.3$
• "Direct" Gas-Phase Metallicity in Local Analogs of High-Redshift Galaxies: Empirical Metallicity Calibrations for High-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies
• Galaxy metallicity scaling relations in the EAGLE simulations
• EMPRESS. V. Metallicity Diagnostics of Galaxies over 12+log(O/H)=~6.9-8.9 Established by a Local Galaxy Census: Preparing for JWST Spectroscopy
• Young stars and ionized nebulae in M83: comparing chemical abundances at high metallicity
• Biases in metallicity measurements from global galaxy spectra: the effects of flux-weighting and diffuse ionized gas contamination
• A Tight Relation Between N/O Ratio and Galaxy Stellar Mass Can Explain the Evolution of Strong Emission Line Ratios with Redshift
• Merger-Induced Metallicity Dilution in Cosmological Galaxy Formation Simulations
• Discovery of Strongly Inverted Metallicity Gradients in Dwarf Galaxies at $z$$\sim$2
• CHAOS VI: Direct Abundances in NGC 2403
• The role of atomic hydrogen in regulating the scatter of the mass-metallicity relation
• The MUSE view of He 2-10: no AGN ionization but a sparkling starburst
• On the origin of the mass-metallicity gradient relation in the local Universe
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The inferred mass--metallicity relation from z=0 to 3.5 via forensic SED fitting
• The mass-metallicity relation at z~1-2 and its dependence on star formation rate
• Mass-Metallicity and Star Formation Rate in Galaxies: a complex relation tuned to stellar age
• New metallicity calibration for Seyfert 2 galaxies based on the N2O2 index
• Galaxy pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey -- XIV. Galaxy mergers do not lie on the Fundamental Metallicity Relation
• Metal Abundances of KISS Galaxies. VI. New Metallicity Relations for the KISS Sample of Star-Forming Galaxies
• Semi-empirical metallicity calibrations based on ultraviolet emission lines of type-2 AGNs
• Local anti-correlation between star-formation rate and gas-phase metallicity in disk galaxies
• Late-time observations of the relativistic tidal disruption flare candidate Swift J1112.2-8238
• The fundamental metallicity relation emerges from the local anti-correlation between star formation rate and gas-phase metallicity existing in disk galaxies
• Chemical abundances in Seyfert galaxies -IX. Helium abundance estimates
• GAME: GAlaxy Machine learning for Emission lines
• VLT/XShooter spectroscopy of Lyman Break Analogs: direct method O/H abundances and nitrogen enhancements
• Red Misfits in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Properties of Star-forming Red Galaxies
• A Comparison of Stellar and Gas-Phase Chemical Abundances in Dusty Early-Type Galaxies
• Gas Accretion and Galactic Chemical Evolution: Theory and Observations
• Forensic reconstruction of galaxy colour evolution and population characterisation
• Metallicities in the Outer Regions of Spiral Galaxies
• The influence of the void environment on the ratio of dark matter halo mass to stellar mass in SDSS MaNGA galaxies
• Gas Accretion and Star Formation Rates
• Conversions between gas-phase metallicities in MaNGA
• New calibrations for estimating the N/O ratio in HII regions
• Cold gas mass measurements for the era of large optical spectroscopic surveys
• Expanding on the Fundamental Metallicity Relation in Dwarf Galaxies with MUSE
• The Metallicity measurement of Early-type Galaxies
• Dependence of the ratio of total to visible mass on observable properties of SDSS MaNGA galaxies
• Measuring the Metallicity of Early-type Galaxies. I. Composite Region
• Optimal strategies for measuring gas-phase metallicities in intermediate-redshift non-AGN and AGN-host galaxies using future instrumentation