LUMINOSITY DEPENDENCE AND REDSHIFT EVOLUTION OF STRONG EMISSION-LINE DIAGNOSTICS IN STAR-FORMING GALAXIES

We examine the redshift evolution of standard strong emission-line diagnostics for H[beta]-selected star-forming galaxies using the local SDSS sample and a new z= 0.2-2.3 sample obtained from Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 grism and Keck DEIMOS and MOSFIRE data. We use the SDSS galaxies to show that th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2016-01, Vol.817 (1), p.57
Main Authors: Cowie, L L, Barger, A J, Songaila, A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
BALMER LINES
CALIBRATION
COSMOLOGY
Diagnostic systems
DISTANCE
DISTRIBUTION
ELEMENT ABUNDANCE
EMISSION
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
IONIZATION
LUMINOSITY
METALLICITY
NITROGEN
OXYGEN
RED SHIFT
SPACE
Star formation
STARS
TELESCOPES
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Summary:We examine the redshift evolution of standard strong emission-line diagnostics for H[beta]-selected star-forming galaxies using the local SDSS sample and a new z= 0.2-2.3 sample obtained from Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 grism and Keck DEIMOS and MOSFIRE data. We use the SDSS galaxies to show that there is a systematic dependence of the strong emission-line properties on Balmer-line luminosity, which we interpret as showing that both the N/O abundance and the ionization parameter increase with increasing line luminosity. Allowing for the luminosity dependence tightens the diagnostic diagrams and the metallicity calibrations. The combined SDSS and high-redshift samples show that there is no redshift evolution in the line properties once the luminosity correction is applied, i.e., all galaxies with a given L(H beta]) have similar strong emission-line distributions at all the observed redshifts. We argue that the best metal diagnostic for the high-redshift galaxies may be a luminosity-adjusted version of the [Nii]6584/H[alpha] metallicity relation.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/0004-637X/817/1/57