J/ApJ/795/165ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/795/165doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.17950165CDSSteidel C.C.Rudie G.C.Strom A.L.Pettini M.Reddy N.A.Shapley A.E.,Trainor R.F.Erb D.K.Turner M.L.Konidaris N.P.Kulas K.R.Mace G.,Matthews K.McLean I.S.2017-06-21T07:32:18Z2017-06-02T14:03:29ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.frgalaxiesinfrared-sourcesredshiftedchemical-abundancesspectroscopysurveysWe present initial results of a deep near-IR spectroscopic survey covering the 15 fields of the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey using the recently commissioned MOSFIRE spectrometer on the Keck 1 telescope. We focus on a sample of 251 galaxies with redshifts 2.0<z<2.6, star formation rates (SFRs) 2<~SFR<~200 M_{sun}_/yr, and stellar masses 8.6<log(M_*_/M_{sun}_)<11.4, with high-quality spectra in both H- and K-band atmospheric windows. We show unambiguously that the locus of z~2.3 galaxies in the "BPT" nebular diagnostic diagram exhibits an almost entirely disjointed, yet similarly tight, relationship between the line ratios [N II] {lambda}6585/H{alpha} and [O III]/H{beta} as compared to local galaxies. Using photoionization models, we argue that the offset of the z~2.3 BPT locus relative to that at z~0 is caused by a combination of harder stellar ionizing radiation field, higher ionization parameter, and higher N/O at a given O/H compared to most local galaxies, and that the position of a galaxy along the z~2.3 star-forming BPT locus is surprisingly insensitive to gas-phase oxygen abundance. The observed nebular emission line ratios are most easily reproduced by models in which the net stellar ionizing radiation field resembles a blackbody with effective temperature T_eff_=50000-60000 K, the gas-phase oxygen abundances lie in the range 0.2<Z/Z_{sun}_<1.0, and the ratio of gas-phase N/O is close to the solar value. We critically assess the applicability at high redshift of commonly used strong line indices for estimating gas-phase metallicity, and consider the implications of the small intrinsic scatter of the empirical relationship between excitation-sensitive line indices and M_*_(i.e., the "mass-metallicity" relation) at z=~2.3.2014ApJ...795..165Shttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/795/165CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic servicerelated-toJ/ApJ/706/1364 : SINS survey of high-redshift galaxiesJ/A+A/551/A93 : Nebular emission from z=~2-3 star-forming galaxieshttps://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/795/165https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/795/165http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/795/165https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/795/165https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/795/165http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/795/165GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapInfraredOpticaldefaultJ/ApJ/795/165/table1KBSS-MOSFIRE Galaxies with both [N II]/H{alpha} and [O III]/H{beta} MeasurementsrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintNameGalaxy namemeta.id;meta.maincharzNebular redshiftsrc.redshiftfloatlogM*? Log of stellar masslog(solMass)phys.massfloatnullablel_log([NII]/Ha)[<] Limit flag on log([NII]/Ha)meta.code.errorcharlog([NII]/Ha)Line ratio of [N II]/H{alpha}arith.zpfloatE_log([NII]/Ha)? Upper limit uncertainty in log([NII]/Ha)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_log([NII]/Ha)? Lower limit uncertainty in log([NII]/Ha)stat.errorfloatnullablelog([OIII]/Hb)? Line ratio of [O III]/H{beta}arith.zpfloatnullableE_log([OIII]/Hb)? Upper limit uncertainty in log([OIII]/Hb)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_log([OIII]/Hb)? Lower limit uncertainty in log([OIII]/Hb)stat.errorfloatnullablel_12+log(O/H)[<] Limit flag on 12+log(O/H)meta.code.errorchar12+log(O/H)Oxygen abundance assuming the N2 calibration of PP04 (Pettini & Pagel, 2004MNRAS.348L..59P)phys.abundfloatE_12+log(O/H)? Upper limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_12+log(O/H)? Lower limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)stat.errorfloatnullablel_12+log(O/H)O3[<] Limit flag on 12+log(O/H)O3meta.code.errorchar12+log(O/H)O3? Oxygen abundance assuming the O3N2 calibration of PP04 (Pettini & Pagel, 2004MNRAS.348L..59P)phys.abundfloatnullableE_12+log(O/H)O3? Upper limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)O3stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_12+log(O/H)O3? Lower limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)O3stat.errorfloatnullableNotesNotes (1)meta.notecharJ/ApJ/795/165/table2KBSS-MOSFIRE Galaxies with [O III]/H{beta} Measurements and [N II]/H{alpha} LimitsNotesNotes (1)meta.notecharrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintNameGalaxy namemeta.id;meta.maincharzNebular redshiftsrc.redshiftfloatlogM*? Log of stellar masslog(solMass)phys.massfloatnullablel_log([NII]/Ha)[<] Limit flag on log([NII]/Ha)meta.code.errorcharlog([NII]/Ha)Line ratio of [N II]/H{alpha}arith.zpfloatE_log([NII]/Ha)? Upper limit uncertainty in log([NII]/Ha)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_log([NII]/Ha)? Lower limit uncertainty in log([NII]/Ha)stat.errorfloatnullablelog([OIII]/Hb)? Line ratio of [O III]/H{beta}arith.zpfloatnullableE_log([OIII]/Hb)? Upper limit uncertainty in log([OIII]/Hb)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_log([OIII]/Hb)? Lower limit uncertainty in log([OIII]/Hb)stat.errorfloatnullablel_12+log(O/H)[<] Limit flag on 12+log(O/H)meta.code.errorchar12+log(O/H)Oxygen abundance assuming the N2 calibration of PP04 (Pettini & Pagel, 2004MNRAS.348L..59P)phys.abundfloatE_12+log(O/H)? Upper limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_12+log(O/H)? Lower limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)stat.errorfloatnullablel_12+log(O/H)O3[<] Limit flag on 12+log(O/H)O3meta.code.errorchar12+log(O/H)O3? Oxygen abundance assuming the O3N2 calibration of PP04 (Pettini & Pagel, 2004MNRAS.348L..59P)phys.abundfloatnullableE_12+log(O/H)O3? Upper limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)O3stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_12+log(O/H)O3? Lower limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)O3stat.errorfloatnullableJ/ApJ/795/165/table3KBSS-MOSFIRE Galaxies with [N II]/H{alpha} and Stellar Mass MeasurementszNebular redshiftsrc.redshiftfloatrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintNameGalaxy namemeta.id;meta.maincharlogM*? Log of stellar masslog(solMass)phys.massfloatnullablel_log([NII]/Ha)[<] Limit flag on log([NII]/Ha)meta.code.errorcharlog([NII]/Ha)Line ratio of [N II]/H{alpha}arith.zpfloatE_log([NII]/Ha)? Upper limit uncertainty in log([NII]/Ha)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_log([NII]/Ha)? Lower limit uncertainty in log([NII]/Ha)stat.errorfloatnullablelog([OIII]/Hb)? Line ratio of [O III]/H{beta}arith.zpfloatnullableE_log([OIII]/Hb)? Upper limit uncertainty in log([OIII]/Hb)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_log([OIII]/Hb)? Lower limit uncertainty in log([OIII]/Hb)stat.errorfloatnullablel_12+log(O/H)[<] Limit flag on 12+log(O/H)meta.code.errorchar12+log(O/H)Oxygen abundance assuming the N2 calibration of PP04 (Pettini & Pagel, 2004MNRAS.348L..59P)phys.abundfloatE_12+log(O/H)? Upper limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_12+log(O/H)? Lower limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)stat.errorfloatnullablel_12+log(O/H)O3[<] Limit flag on 12+log(O/H)O3meta.code.errorchar12+log(O/H)O3? Oxygen abundance assuming the O3N2 calibration of PP04 (Pettini & Pagel, 2004MNRAS.348L..59P)phys.abundfloatnullableE_12+log(O/H)O3? Upper limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)O3stat.error;stat.maxfloatnullablee_12+log(O/H)O3? Lower limit uncertainty in 12+log(O/H)O3stat.errorfloatnullableNotesNotes (1)meta.notechar