Far-infrared metallicity diagnostics: Application to local ultraluminous infrared galaxies

Abstract

The abundance of metals in galaxies is a key parameter which permits to distinguish between different galaxy formation and evolution models. Most of the metallicity determinations are based on optical line ratios. However, the optical spectral range is subject to dust extinction and, for high-z objects (z > 3), some of the lines used in optical metallicity diagnostics are shifted to wavelengths not accessible to ground based observatories. For this reason, we explore metallicity diagnostics using far-infrared (IR) line ratios which can provide a suitable alternative in such situations. To investigate these far-IR line ratios, we modeled the emission of a starburst with the photoionization code CLOUDY. The most sensitive far-IR ratios to measure metallicities are the [OIII]52$\mu$m and 88$\mu$m to [NIII]57$\mu$m ratios. We show that this ratio produces robust metallicities in the presence of an AGN and is insensitive to changes in the age of the ionizing stellar. Another metallicity sensitive ratio is the [OIII]88$\mu$m/[NII]122$\mu$m ratio, although it depends on the ionization parameter. We propose various mid- and far-IR line ratios to break this dependency. Finally, we apply these far-IR diagnostics to a sample of 19 local ultraluminous IR galaxies (ULIRGs) observed with Herschel and Spitzer. We find that the gas-phase metallicity in these local ULIRGs is in the range 0.7 < Z_gas/Z_sun < 1.5, which corresponds to 8.5 < 12 + log (O/H) < 8.9. The inferred metallicities agree well with previous estimates for local ULIRGs and this confirms that they lie below the local mass-metallicity relation.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in MNRAS; 25 pages, 19 figures

References in corpus (59)

• The chemical composition of the Sun
• On the variation of the Initial Mass Function
• Starburst99: Synthesis Models for Galaxies with Active Star Formation
• Cosmic Star Formation History
• The Origin of the Mass--Metallicity Relation: Insights from 53,000 Star-Forming Galaxies in the SDSS
• Herschel Space Observatory - An ESA facility for far-infrared and submillimetre astronomy
• The Spitzer Space Telescope Mission
• The Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) on the Herschel Space Observatory
• The Herschel-SPIRE instrument and its in-flight performance
• Metallicity Calibrations and the Mass-Metallicity Relation for Star-Forming Galaxies
• Gas-regulation of galaxies: the evolution of the cosmic sSFR, the metallicity-mass-SFR relation and the stellar content of haloes
• The Infrared Astronomical Mission AKARI
• Dusty Star-Forming Galaxies at High Redshift
• Gas-to-Dust mass ratios in local galaxies over a 2 dex metallicity range
• Massive molecular outflows and negative feedback in ULIRGs observed by Herschel-PACS
• The Origin of the Galaxy Mass-Metallicity Relation and Implications for Galactic Outflows
• Spitzer Quasar and ULIRG Evolution Study (QUEST). IV. Comparison of 1-Jy Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies with Palomar-Green Quasars
• The applicability of FIR fine-structure lines as Star Formation Rate tracers over wide ranges of metallicities and galaxy types
• The 2013 Release of Cloudy
• On The Cosmic Origins Of Carbon And Nitrogen
• Diagnostics of irradiated dense gas in galaxy nuclei. II. A grid of XDR and PDR models
• High resolution mid-infrared spectroscopy of ultraluminous infrared galaxies
• The Origin and Evolution of the Mass-Metallicity Relationship for Galaxies: Results from Cosmological N-Body Simulations
• Ultra-Luminous Infrared Mergers: Elliptical Galaxies in Formation?
• Mid-Infrared line diagnostics of Active Galaxies -- A spectroscopic AGN survey with ISO-SWS
• Modelling the Pan-Spectral Energy Distribution of Starburst Galaxies: III. Emission Line Diagnostics of Ensembles of Evolving HII Regions
• Ultr-Luminous Infrared Galaxies: QSOs in Formation?
• The Abundance Properties of Nearby Late-Type Galaxies.I. The Data
• Carbon and Oxygen Abundances in Low Metallicity Dwarf Galaxies
• Far-infrared Fine-Structure Line Diagnostics of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies
• Dynamical properties of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies I: Mass ratio conditions for ULIRG activity in interacting pairs
• Diagnostics of AGN-driven Molecular Outflows in ULIRGs from Herschel-PACS Observations of OH at 119um
• Detection of the 205 um [NII] Line from the Carina Nebula
• The Oxygen Abundances of Luminous and Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies
• Dynamical properties of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies. II. Traces of dynamical evolution and end products of local ultraluminous mergers
• Neon Fine-Structure Line Emission By X-ray Irradiated Protoplanetary Disks
• Carbon in Spiral Galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope Spectroscopy
• Mid-Infrared Atomic Fine-Structure Emission Line Spectra of Luminous Infrared Galaxies: Spitzer/IRS Spectra of the GOALS Sample
• Dust-Bounded ULIRGs? Model Predictions for Infrared Spectroscopic Surveys
• The Mid-Infrared High-Ionization Lines from Active Galactic Nuclei and Star-Forming Galaxies
• The role of nuclear activity as the power source of ultraluminous infrared galaxies
• Missing Massive Stars in Starbursts: Stellar Temperature Diagnostics and the IMF
• ALMA reveals a chemically evolved submillimeter galaxy at z=4.76
• Metallicity Diagnostics with Infrared Fine-Structure Lines
• Far-infrared line spectra of active galaxies from the Herschel/PACS Spectrometer: the complete database
• Physical conditions in the gas phases of the giant HII region LMC-N11 unveiled by Herschel - I. Diffuse [CII] and [OIII] emission in LMC-N11B
• Resolving the AGN and host emission in the mid-infrared using a model-independent spectral decomposition
• Mid-infrared diagnostics of starburst galaxies: clumpy, dense structures in star-forming regions in the Antennae (NGC 4038/4039)
• The properties of the stellar populations in ULIRGs II: the star formation histories and evolution
• Far-infrared line spectra of Seyfert galaxies from the Herschel-PACS Spectrometer
• Herschel observations and a model for IRAS 08572+3915: a candidate for the most luminous infrared galaxy in the local (z < 0.2) Universe
• X-ray Ionization of Heavy Elements Applied to Protoplanetary Disks
• The optical spectra of 24 micron galaxies in the COSMOS field: I. Spitzer/MIPS bright sources in the zCOSMOS-bright 10k catalogue
• Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies in the AKARI All Sky Survey
• An ALMA view of the interstellar medium of the z=4.77 lensed starburst SPT-S J213242-5802.9
• HERUS: A CO Atlas from SPIRE Spectroscopy of local ULIRGs
• Theoretical Modeling of Emission-Line galaxies: New Classification Parameters for Mid-Infrared and Optical Spectroscopy
• A Suzaku observation of the ULIRG IRAS19254-7245: disclosing the AGN component
• Constraining UV Continuum Slopes of Active Galactic Nuclei With CLOUDY Models of Broad Line Region EUV Emission Lines

Cited by in corpus (57)

• De Re Metallica: The cosmic chemical evolution of galaxies
• The REBELS ALMA Survey: cosmic dust temperature evolution out to z $\sim$ 7
• SHINING, A Survey of Far Infrared Lines in Nearby Galaxies. II: Line-Deficit Models, AGN impact, [CII]-SFR Scaling Relations, and Mass-Metallicity Relation in (U)LIRGS
• An ALMA multi-line survey of the interstellar medium of the redshift 7.5 quasar host galaxy J1342+0928
• The physics of gas phase metallicity gradients in galaxies
• Dust temperature in ALMA $\hbox{[C $\scriptstyle\rm II $]}$-detected high-$z$ galaxies
• GA-NIFS: The core of an extremely massive proto-cluster at the Epoch of Reionization probed with JWST/NIRSpec
• PAHs as tracers of the molecular gas in star-forming galaxies
• MUSE view of Arp220: Kpc-scale multi-phase outflow and evidence for positive feedback
• A dense, solar metallicity ISM in the z=4.2 dusty star-forming galaxy SPT0418-47
• On the far-infrared metallicity diagnostics: applications to high-redshift galaxies
• Ubiquitous Molecular Outflows in z > 4 Massive, Dusty Galaxies II. Momentum-Driven Winds Powered by Star Formation in the Early Universe
• HERUS: The Far-IR/Submm Spectral Energy Distributions of Local ULIRGs & Photometric Atlas
• ALMA view of the ${}^{12}$C/${}^{13}$C isotopic ratio in starburst galaxies
• A new look at the infrared properties of z $\sim$ 5 galaxies
• Galaxy evolution studies with the SPace IR telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA): the power of IR spectroscopy
• Detections of [OIII] 88 $\mu$m in Two Quasars in the Reionization Epoch
• The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). V: Unveiling PAH survival and resilience in the circumnuclear regions of AGN with JWST
• CNO emission of an unlensed submillimeter galaxy at z=4.3
• The Galaxy Activity, Torus, and Outflow Survey (GATOS). (IV): Exploring Ionized Gas Outflows in Central Kiloparsec Regions of GATOS Seyferts
• Evidence that Shocks Destroy Small PAH Molecules in Low-luminosity Active Galactic Nuclei
• High resolution modeling of [CII], [CI], [OIII] and CO line emission from the ISM and CGM of a star forming galaxy at z ~ 6.5
• A solar metallicity galaxy at $z>$ 7? Possible detection of the [N II] 122 $\mu$m and [O III] 52 $\mu$m lines
• Measuring Chemical Abundances with Infrared Nebular Lines: HII-Chi-mistry-IR
• Bridging Optical and Far-Infrared Emission-Line Diagrams of Galaxies from Local to the Epoch of Reionization: Characteristic High [O III] 88 $\mu \mathrm{m}$/SFR at $z>6$
• GAME: GAlaxy Machine learning for Emission lines
• SOFIA observations of far-IR fine-structure lines in galaxies to measure metallicity
• Far-Infrared Line Diagnostics: Improving N/O Abundance Estimates for Dusty Galaxies
• Gas Phase Metallicities of Local Ultra-Luminous Infrared Galaxies Follow Normal Star-Forming Galaxies
• ALMA and MUSE observations reveal a quiescent multi-phase circumgalactic medium around the z~3.6 radio galaxy 4C 19.71
• ALMA [N ıı] 205 μm Imaging Spectroscopy of the Lensed Submillimeter galaxy ID 141 at redshift 4.24
• Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Emission in the Central Regions of Three Seyferts the Implication for Underlying Feedback Mechanisms
• Measuring chemical abundances in AGN from infrared nebular lines: HII-CHI-Mistry-IR for AGN
• SPICA and the Chemical Evolution of Galaxies: The Rise of Metals and Dust
• Stellar populations and physical properties of starbursts in the Antennae galaxy from self-consistent modelling of MUSE spectra
• Probing the baryon cycle of galaxies with SPICA mid- and far-infrared observations
• Unbiased large spectroscopic surveys of galaxies selected by SPICA using dust bands
• Origins Space Telescope: predictions for far-IR spectroscopic surveys
• Multi-Phase ISM in the z = 5.7 Hyperluminous Starburst SPT0346-52
• Extended high-ionization [MgIV] emission tracing widespread shocks in starbursts seen by JWST /NIRSpec
• New Ionization Models and the Shocking Nitrogen Excess at z > 5
• Detection of nitrogen and oxygen in a galaxy at the end of reionization
• CON-quest II. Spatially and spectrally resolved HCN/HCO+ line ratios in local luminous and ultraluminous infrared galaxies
• Infrared fine-structure lines at high redshift
• Optical integral field spectroscopy of intermediate redshift infrared bright galaxies
• Chemical abundances and deviations from the solar S/O ratio in the gas-phase ISM of galaxies based on infrared emission lines
• Disentangling the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes with PRIMA
• A puzzling non-detection of [O III] and [C II] from a $z\approx 7.7$ galaxy observed with ALMA
• The Lockman-SpReSO project. Description, target selection, observations and preliminary results
• PRUSSIC II -- ALMA imaging of dense-gas tracers in SDP.81: Evidence for low mechanical heating and a sub-solar metallicity in a z=3.04 dusty galaxy
• Disentangling emission from star-forming regions in the Magellanic Clouds: Linking [OIII]88 micron and 24 micron
• Constraining the physical properties of gas in high-z galaxies with far-infrared and submillimetre line ratios
• A theoretical investigation of far-infrared fine structure lines at $z>6$ and of the origin of the [OIII]88/[CII]158 enhancement
• The Galaxy Evolution Probe
• Chemical abundances in Seyfert galaxies -- VII. Direct abundance determination of neon based on optical and infrared emission lines
• The ALMA View of High-Redshift Galaxy Formation
• Unveiling the physical processes that regulate Galaxy Evolution with SPICA observations