STRONG NEBULAR LINE RATIOS IN THE SPECTRA of z ∼ 2-3 STAR FORMING GALAXIES: FIRST RESULTS FROM KBSS-MOSFIRE

We 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. Using photoionization models, we argue that the offset of the z ~ 2.3 BPT locus relative to tha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2014-11, Vol.795 (2), p.1-40
Main Authors: Steidel, Charles C, Rudie, Gwen C, Strom, Allison L, Pettini, Max, Reddy, Naveen A, Shapley, Alice E, Trainor, Ryan F, Erb, Dawn K, Turner, Monica L, Konidaris, Nicholas P, Kulas, Kristin R, Mace, Gregory, Matthews, Keith, McLean, Ian S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomical models
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
Asymptotic properties
COSMOLOGY
ELEMENT ABUNDANCE
EMISSION
Estimating
EVOLUTION
EXCITATION
Galaxies
Ionization
MASS
METALLICITY
MILKY WAY
NEAR INFRARED RADIATION
OXYGEN
PHOTOIONIZATION
RED SHIFT
SPECTRA
SPECTROMETERS
Star formation
STARS
TELESCOPES
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Summary:We 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. 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 ~ 23 star-forming BPT locus is surprisingly insensitive to gas-phase oxygen abundance. 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 sub(*) (i.e., the "mass-metallicity" relation) at z [Asymptotically = to] 23.
ISSN:1538-4357
0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/795/2/165