Gas-phase mass-metallicity relation for LEGA-C gal. Virtual Observatory Resource

Authors
  1. Lewis Z.J.
  2. Andrews B.H.
  3. Bezanson R.
  4. Maseda M.
  5. Bell E.F.
  6. Dave R.,D'Eugenio F.
  7. Franx M.
  8. Gallazzi A.
  9. de Graaff A.
  10. Kaushal Y.,Nersesian A.
  11. Newman J.A.
  12. van der Wel A.
  13. Wu P.-F.
  14. Published by
    CDS
Abstract

The massive end of the gas-phase mass-metallicity relation (MZR) is a sensitive probe of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback that is a crucial but highly uncertain component of galaxy evolution models. In this paper, we extend the z~0.7 MZR by ~0.5dex up to log(M*/M_{sun}_)~11.1. We use extremely deep VLT VIMOS spectra from the Large Early Galaxy Astrophysics Census (LEGA-C) survey to measure metallicities for 145 galaxies. The LEGA-C MZR matches the normalization of the z~0.8 DEEP2 MZR where they overlap, so we combine the two to create an MZR spanning from 9.3 to 11.1 log(M*/M_{sun}_). The LEGA-C+DEEP2 MZR at z~0.7 is offset to slightly lower metallicities (0.05-0.13 dex) than the z~0 MZR, but it otherwise mirrors the established power-law rise at low/intermediate stellar masses and asymptotic flattening at high stellar masses. We compare the LEGA-C+DEEP2 MZR to the MZR from two cosmological simulations (IllustrisTNG and SIMBA), which predict qualitatively different metallicity trends for high-mass galaxies. This comparison highlights that our extended MZR provides a crucial observational constraint for galaxy evolution models in a mass regime where the MZR is very sensitive to choices about the implementation of AGN feedback.

Keywords
  1. galaxies
  2. spectroscopy
  3. visible-astronomy
  4. redshifted
  5. extinction
  6. chemical-abundances
Bibliographic source Bibcode
2024ApJ...964...59L
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https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/964/59
IVOA Identifier IVOID
ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/964/59

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http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/964/59
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History

2026-07-28T11:09:20Z
Resource record created
2026-07-28T10:15:24Z
Updated
2026-07-28T11:09:20Z
Created

Contact

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CDS support team
Postal Address
CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
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