The NIRVANDELS Survey: a robust detection of $\alpha$-enhancement in star-forming galaxies at $z\simeq 3.4$

Abstract

We present results from the NIRVANDELS survey investigating the gas-phase metallicity (${\mathrm{Z}}_{\mathrm{gas}}$, tracing O/H) and stellar metallicity ($Z_{\star }$, tracing Fe/H) of 33 star-forming galaxies at redshifts $2.95<z<3.80$. Based on a combined analysis of deep optical and near-IR spectra, tracing the rest-frame far ultraviolet and rest-frame optical respectively, we present the first simultaneous determination of the stellar and gas-phase mass-metallicity relationships (MZRs) at $z\simeq 3.4$. In both cases, we find that metallicity increases with increasing stellar mass ($M_{\star }$), and that the power-law slope at $M_{\star }\lesssim 10^{10}{\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }$ of both MZRs scales as $Z\propto M_{\star }^{0.3}$. Comparing the stellar and gas-phase MZRs, we present direct evidence for super-solar O/Fe ratios (i.e., $\alpha$-enhancement) at $z>3$, finding $(O/Fe)\simeq (2.54\pm 0.38)\times {(O/Fe)}_{\odot }$, with no clear dependence on $M_{\star }$.

18 pages, 11 figures, MNRAS accepted

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