No Arabic abstract
We present the first results from a near-IR spectroscopic survey of the COSMOS field, using the Fiber Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Subaru telescope, designed to characterize the star-forming galaxy population at $1.4<z<1.7$. The high-resolution mode is implemented to detect H$alpha$ in emission between $1.6{rm -}1.8 mathrm{mu m}$ with $f_{rm Halpha}gtrsim4times10^{-17}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$. Here, we specifically focus on 271 sBzK-selected galaxies that yield a H$alpha$ detection thus providing a redshift and emission line luminosity to establish the relation between star formation rate and stellar mass. With further $J$-band spectroscopy for 89 of these, the level of dust extinction is assessed by measuring the Balmer decrement using co-added spectra. We find that the extinction ($0.6lesssim A_mathrm{Halpha} lesssim 2.5$) rises with stellar mass and is elevated at high masses compared to low-redshift galaxies. Using this subset of the spectroscopic sample, we further find that the differential extinction between stellar and nebular emission hbox{$E_mathrm{star}(B-V)/E_mathrm{neb}(B-V)$} is 0.7--0.8, dissimilar to that typically seen at low redshift. After correcting for extinction, we derive an H$alpha$-based main sequence with a slope ($0.81pm0.04$) and normalization similar to previous studies at these redshifts.
We investigate the relationships between stellar mass, gas-phase oxygen abundance (metallicity), star formation rate, and dust content of star-forming galaxies at z$sim$1.6 using Subaru/FMOS spectroscopy in the COSMOS field. The mass-metallicity relation at $zsim1.6$ is steeper than the relation observed in the local Universe. The steeper MZ relation at $zsim1.6$ is mainly due to evolution in the stellar mass where the MZ relation begins to turnover and flatten. This turnover mass is 1.2 dex larger at $zsim1.6$. The most massive galaxies at $zsim1.6$ ($sim 10^{11}M_odot$) are enriched to the level observed in massive galaxies in the local Universe. The mass-metallicity relation we measure at $zsim1.6$ supports the suggestion of an empirical upper metallicity limit that does not significantly evolve with redshift. We find an anti-correlation between metallicity and star formation rate for galaxies at a fixed stellar mass at $zsim1.6$ which is similar to trends observed in the local Universe. We do not find a relation between stellar mass, metallicity and star formation rate that is independent of redshift; our data suggest that there is redshift evolution in this relation. We examine the relation between stellar mass, metallicity and dust extinction. We find that at a fixed stellar mass dustier galaxies tend to be more metal rich. From examination of the stellar masses, metallicities, SFRs and dust extinctions we conclude that stellar mass is most closely related to dust extinction.
We present a spectroscopic survey of galaxies in the COSMOS field using the Fiber Multi-Object Spectrograph (FMOS), a near-infrared instrument on the Subaru Telescope. Our survey is specifically designed to detect the Halpha emission line that falls within the H-band (1.6-1.8 um) spectroscopic window from star-forming galaxies with 1.4 < z < 1.7 and M_stellar>~10^10 Msolar. With the high multiplex capability of FMOS, it is now feasible to construct samples of over one thousand galaxies having spectroscopic redshifts at epochs that were previously challenging. The high-resolution mode (R~2600) effectively separates Halpha and [NII]6585 thus enabling studies of the gas-phase metallicity and photoionization state of the interstellar medium. The primary aim of our program is to establish how star formation depends on stellar mass and environment, both recognized as drivers of galaxy evolution at lower redshifts. In addition to the main galaxy sample, our target selection places priority on those detected in the far-infrared by Herschel/PACS to assess the level of obscured star formation and investigate, in detail, outliers from the star formation rate - stellar mass relation. Galaxies with Halpha detections are followed up with FMOS observations at shorter wavelengths using the J-long (1.11-1.35 um) grating to detect Hbeta and [OIII]5008 that provides an assessment of extinction required to measure star formation rates not hampered by dust, and an indication of embedded Active Galactic Nuclei. With 460 redshifts measured from 1153 spectra, we assess the performance of the instrument with respect to achieving our goals, discuss inherent biases in the sample, and detail the emission-line properties. Our higher-level data products, including catalogs and spectra, are available to the community.
We investigate the physical conditions of ionized gas in high-z star-forming galaxies using diagnostic diagrams based on the rest-frame optical emission lines. The sample consists of 701 galaxies with an Ha detection at $1.4lesssim zlesssim1.7$, from the FMOS-COSMOS survey, that represent the normal star-forming population over the stellar mass range $10^{9.6} lesssim M_ast/M_odot lesssim 10^{11.6}$ with those at $M_ast>10^{11}~M_odot$ being well sampled. We confirm an offset of the average location of star-forming galaxies in the BPT diagram ([OIII]/Hb vs. [NII]/Ha), primarily towards higher [OIII]/Hb, compared with local galaxies. Based on the [SII] ratio, we measure an electron density ($n_e=220^{+170}_{-130}~mathrm{cm^{-3}}$), that is higher than that of local galaxies. Based on comparisons to theoretical models, we argue that changes in emission-line ratios, including the offset in the BPT diagram, are caused by a higher ionization parameter both at fixed stellar mass and at fixed metallicity with additional contributions from a higher gas density and possibly a hardening of the ionizing radiation field. Ionization due to AGNs is ruled out as assessed with Chandra. As a consequence, we revisit the mass-metallicity relation using [NII]/Ha and a new calibration including [NII]/[SII] as recently introduced by Dopita et al. Consistent with our previous results, the most massive galaxies ($M_astgtrsim10^{11}~M_odot$) are fully enriched, while those at lower masses have metallicities lower than local galaxies. Finally, we demonstrate that the stellar masses, metallicities and star formation rates of the FMOS sample are well fit with a physically-motivated model for the chemical evolution of star-forming galaxies.
We investigate the properties (e.g. star formation rate, dust attentuation, stellar mass and metallicity) of a sample of infrared luminous galaxies at z sim 1 via near-IR spectroscopy with Subaru-FMOS. Our sample consists of Herschel SPIRE and Spitzer MIPS selected sources in the COSMOS field with photometric redshifts in the range 0.7 < z-phot < 1.8, which have been targeted in 2 pointings (0.5 sq. deg.) with FMOS. We find a modest success rate for emission line detections, with candidate H{alpha} emission lines detected for 57 of 168 SPIRE sources (34 per cent). By stacking the near-IR spectra we directly measure the mean Balmer decrement for the H{alpha} and H{beta} lines, finding a value of <E(B-V)> = 0.51pm0.27 for <LIR> = 10^12 Lsol sources at <z> = 1.36. By comparing star formation rates estimated from the IR and from the dust uncorrected H{alpha} line we find a strong relationship between dust attenuation and star formation rate. This relation is broadly consistent with that previously seen in star-forming galaxies at z ~ 0.1. Finally, we investigate the metallicity via the N2 ratio, finding that z ~ 1 IR-selected sources are indistinguishable from the local mass-metallicity relation. We also find a strong correlation between dust attentuation and metallicity, with the most metal-rich IR-sources experiencing the largest levels of dust attenuation.
We perform SED fitting analysis on a COSMOS sample covering UV-to-FIR wavelengths with emission lines from the FMOS survey. The sample of 182 objects with H$alpha$ and [OIII]$lambda5007$ emission spans over a range of $1.40<rm{z}<1.68$. We obtain robust estimates of stellar mass ($10^{9.5}-10^{11.5}~rm{M_odot}$) and SFR ($10^1-10^3~rm{M_odot}~rm{yr}^{-1}$) from the Bayesian analysis with CIGALE fitting continuum photometry and H$alpha$. We obtain a median attenuation of A$_rm{Halpha}=1.16pm0.19$ mag and A$_rm{[OIII]}=1.41pm0.22$ mag. H$alpha$ and [OIII]$lambda5007$ attenuations are found to increase with stellar mass, confirming previous findings. A difference of $57$% in the attenuation experienced by emission lines and continuum is found in agreement with the lines being more attenuated than the continuum. New CLOUDY HII-region models in CIGALE enable good fits of H$alpha$, H$beta$, [OIII]$lambda5007$ emission lines with differences smaller than $0.2$ dex. Fitting [NII]$lambda6584$ line is challenging due to well-known discrepancies in the locus of galaxies in the BPT diagram at intermediate redshifts. We find a positive correlation for SFR and dust-corrected L$_rm{[OIII]lambda5007}$ and we derive the linear relation $log_{10}rm{(SFR/rm{M}_odot~rm{yr}^{-1})}=log_{10} (rm{L}_{[rm{OIII]}}/rm{ergs~s^{-1}})-(41.20pm0.02)$. Leaving the slope as a free parameter leads to $log_{10}rm{(SFR/rm{M}_odot~rm{yr}^{-1})}=(0.83pm0.06)log_{10}(rm{L}_{[rm{OIII]}}/rm{ergs~s^{-1}})-(34.01pm2.63)$. Gas-phase metallicity and ionization parameter variations account for a $0.24$ dex and $1.1$ dex of the dispersion, respectively. An average value of $logrm{U}approx-2.85$ is measured for this sample. Including HII-region models to fit simultaneously photometry and emission line fluxes are paramount to analyze future data from surveys such as MOONS and PFS.