Near-Infrared Spectroscopy of 0.4<z<1.0 CFRS Galaxies: Oxygen Abundances, SFRs and Dust

Abstract

Using new J-band VLT-ISAAC and Keck-NIRSPEC spectroscopy, we have measured Halpha and [NII] line fluxes for 0.47<z<0.92 CFRS galaxies which have [OII], Hbeta and [OIII]a line fluxes available from optical spectroscopy, to investigate how the properties of the star forming gas in galaxies evolve with redshift. We derive the extinction and oxygen abundances for the sample using a method based on a set of ionisation parameter and oxygen abundance diagnostics, simultaneously fitting the [OII], Hbeta,[OIII], Halpha, and [NII] line fluxes. The individual reddening measurements allow us to accurately correct the Halpha-based star formation rate (SFR) estimates for extinction. Our most salient conclusions are: a) in all 30 CFRS galaxies the source of gas ionisation is not due to AGN activity; b) we find a range of 0<AV<3, suggesting that it is important to determine the extinction for every single galaxy in order to reliably measure SFRs and oxygen abundances in high redshift galaxies; c) high values of [NII]/Halpha >0.1 for most (but not all) of the CFRS galaxies indicate that they lie on the high-metallicity branch of the R23 calibration; d) about one third of the 0.47<z<0.92 CFRS galaxies in our sample have lower metallicities than local galaxies with similar luminosities and star formation rates; e) comparison with a chemical evolution model indicates that these low metallicity galaxies are unlikely to be the progenitors of metal-poor dwarf galaxies at z~0.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal

References in corpus (19)

• Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence
• The Origin of the Mass--Metallicity Relation: Insights from 53,000 Star-Forming Galaxies in the SDSS
• [O III]/[N II] as an Abundance Indicator at High Redshift
• Cosmic-Ray Rejection by Laplacian Edge Detection
• Using Strong Lines to Estimate Abundances in Extragalactic HII Regions and Starburst Galaxies
• Metallicities of 0.3<z<1.0 Galaxies in the GOODS-North Field
• The COMBO-17 Survey: Evolution of the Galaxy Luminosity Function from 25,000 Galaxies with 0.2<z<1.2
• On Measuring Chemical Abundances in Distant Galaxies Using Global Emission Line Spectra
• Spectrophotometry of nearby field galaxies: the data
• The Luminosity-Metallicity relation in the local universe from the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey
• Evidence for Solar Metallicities in Massive Star-forming Galaxies at z>~2
• The matallicities of star-forming galaxies at intermediate redshifts 0.47 < z < 0.92
• Luminous compact galaxies at intermediate redshifts: progenitors of bulges of massive spirals ?
• The DEEP Groth Strip Survey VII: The Metallicity of Field Galaxies at 0.26<z<0.82 and the Evolution of the Luminosity-Metallicity Relation
• Metal Abundances of KISS Galaxies. IV. Galaxian Luminosity-Metallicity Relations in the Optical and Near-IR
• Metal Abundances of KISS Galaxies. I. Coarse Metal Abundances and the Metallicity-Luminosity Relation
• The metallicity-luminosity relation at medium redshift based on faint CADIS emission line galaxies
• Evidence for chemical evolution in the spectra of high redshift galaxies
• The Metallicity of 0.5<z<1 Field Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (53)

• Metallicity Calibrations and the Mass-Metallicity Relation for Star-Forming Galaxies
• AMAZE. I. The evolution of the mass-metallicity relation at z>3
• De Re Metallica: The cosmic chemical evolution of galaxies
• Galaxy Pairs in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey I: Star Formation, AGN Fraction, and the Luminosity/Mass-Metallicity Relation
• Optical Spectroscopy and Nebular Oxygen Abundances of the Spitzer/SINGS Galaxies
• Evolution of the Bar Fraction in COSMOS: Quantifying the Assembly of the Hubble Sequence
• On Extending the Mass-Metallicity Relation of Galaxies by 2.5 Decades in Stellar Mass
• Ionization State of Inter-Stellar Medium in Galaxies: Evolution, SFR-M_star-Z Dependence, and Ionizing Photon Escape
• Optical Star-Formation Rate Indicators
• The FMOS-Cosmos Survey of Star-Forming Galaxies at z~1.6 II. The Mass-Metallicity Relation and the Dependence on Star Formation Rate and Dust Extinction
• GRBs as Cosmological Probes - Cosmic Chemical Evolution
• The oxygen abundance in the inner HII regions of M101. Implications for the calibration of strong-line metallicity indicators
• The Oxygen Abundances of Luminous and Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies
• The equilibrium view on dust and metals in galaxies: Galactic outflows drive low dust-to-metal ratios in dwarf galaxies
• The evolution of the mass-metallicity relation in galaxies of different morphological types
• The cosmic evolution of oxygen and nitrogen abundances in star-forming galaxies over the past 10 Gyrs
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): A deeper view of the mass, metallicity, and SFR relationships
• Integrated Nebular Abundances of Disk Galaxies
• Physical properties of galaxies and their evolution in the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey. I. The evolution of the mass-metallicity relation up to z~0.9
• The mass-metallicity and fundamental metallicity relations at z>2 using VLT and Subaru near-infrared spectroscopy of zCOSMOS galaxies
• Quasars probing intermediate redshift star-forming galaxies
• GMASS Ultradeep Spectroscopy of Galaxies at redshift z~2. I. The stellar metallicity
• Oxygen Gas Abundances at z~1.4: Implications for the Chemical Evolution History of Galaxies
• Rest-UV Absorption Lines as Metallicity Estimator: the Metal Content of Star-Forming Galaxies at z~5
• Star formation history of galaxies from z=0 to z=0.7 A backward approach to the evolution of star-forming galaxies
• The mass-metallicity relation of Lyman-break analogues and its dependence on galaxy properties
• The Dependence of Star Formation Activity on Stellar Mass Surface Density and Sersic Index in zCOSMOS Galaxies at 0.5<z<0.9 Compared with SDSS Galaxies at 0.04<z<0.08
• Study of star-forming galaxies in SDSS up to redshift 0.4 II. Evolution from the fundamental parameters: mass, metallicity & SFR
• The optical spectra of 24 micron galaxies in the COSMOS field: I. Spitzer/MIPS bright sources in the zCOSMOS-bright 10k catalogue
• Significant evolution of the stellar mass-metallicity relation since z~0.65
• The mass-metallicity relation of zCOSMOS galaxies at z ~ 0.7, its dependence on SFR, and the existence of massive low-metallicity galaxies
• Spectrophotometric properties of galaxies at intermediate redshifts (z ~ 0.2--1.0) II. The Luminosity -- Metallicity relation
• Spectrophotometric properties of galaxies at intermediate redshifts (z ~ 0.2--1.0) I. Sample description, photometric properties and spectral measurements
• CLASH-VLT: Strangulation of cluster galaxies in MACSJ0416.1-2403 as seen from their chemical enrichment
• On the relation between sSFR and metallicity
• Physical conditions of the interstellar medium in star-forming galaxies at z~1.5
• The S2N2 metallicity calibrator and the abundance gradient of M 33
• Study of star-forming galaxies in SDSS up to redshift 0.4: I. Metallicity evolution
• A Population of Metal-Poor Galaxies with ~L* Luminosities at Intermediate Redshifts
• The metallicities of luminous, massive field galaxies at intermediate redshifts
• Star-forming galaxies in SDSS: signs of metallicity evolution
• Simulating the Mass-Metallicity Relation from z=1
• Ultraluminous X-ray sources out to z~0.3 in the COSMOS field
• CLASH-VLT: Enhancement of (O/H) in z=0.35 RXJ 2248-4431 cluster galaxies
• The optical spectra of Spitzer 24 micron galaxies in the COSMOS field: II. Faint infrared sources in the zCOSMOS-bright 10k catalogue
• Star formation rates and chemical abundances of emission line galaxies in intermediate-redshift clusters
• The WHIQII Survey: Metallicities and Spectroscopic Properties of Luminous Compact Blue Galaxies
• Emission Line Metallicities From The Faint Infrared Grism Survey and VLT/MUSE
• Galaxies in front of Quasars: Mrk 1456 and SDSS J114719.90+522923.2
• Field galaxies at intermediate redshift (0.2 < z < 0.8) in the direction of the galaxy cluster LCDCS-S001
• Gas-phase metallicity of 27 galaxies at intermediate redshift
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The M-Z relation for galaxy groups
• Integral field spectroscopy with SINFONI of VVDS galaxies. II. The mass-metallicity relation at 1.2 < z < 1.6