Unveiling the Cosmic Chemistry II: 'direct' $T_e$--based metallicity of galaxies at 3 $< z <$ 10 with JWST/NIRSpec
| Autor: | Chakraborty, Priyanka, Sarkar, Arnab, Smith, Randall, Ferland, Gary J., McDonald, Michael, Forman, William, Vogelsberger, Mark, Torrey, Paul, Garcia, Alex M., Bautz, Mark, Foster, Adam, Miller, Eric, Grant, Catherine |
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| Rok vydání: | 2024 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| Popis: | We report the detection of the [O III] auroral line in 42 galaxies within the redshift range of $3 < z < 10$. These galaxies were selected from publicly available JWST data releases, including the JADES and PRIMALsurveys, and observed using both the low-resolution PRISM/CLEAR configuration and medium-resolution gratings. The measured electron temperatures in the high-ionization regions of these galaxies range from $T_e$([O III]) = 12,000 to 24,000 K, consistent with temperatures observed in local metal-poor galaxies and previous JWST studies. In 10 galaxies, we also detect the [O II] auroral line, allowing us to determine electron temperatures in the low-ionization regions, which range between $T_e$([O II]) = 10,830 and 20,000 K. The direct-$T_e$-based metallicities of our sample span from 12 + log(O/H) = 7.2 to 8.4, indicating these high-redshift galaxies are relatively metal-poor. By combining our sample with 25 galaxies from the literature, we expand the dataset to a total of 67 galaxies within $3 < z < 10$, effectively more than doubling the previous sample size for direct-$T_e$ based metallicity studies. This larger dataset allow us to derive empirical metallicity calibration relations based exclusively on high-redshift galaxies, using six key line ratios: R3, R2, R23, Ne3O2, O32, and O3N2. Notably, we derive a novel metallicity calibration relation for the first time using high-redshift $T_e$-based metallicities: $\hat{R}$ = 0.18log $R2$ + 0.98log $R3$. This new calibration significantly reduces the scatter in high-redshift galaxies compared to the $\hat{R}$ relation previously calibrated for low-redshift galaxies. Comment: 23 pages, 10 figures, submitted to ApJ |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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