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We investigate the redshift evolution of the [OIII]/Hb nebular emission line ratio for a sample of galaxies spanning the redshift range 0 < z < 4. We compare the observed evolution to a set of theoretical models which account for the independent evolution of chemical abundance, ionization parameter and interstellar-medium (ISM) pressure in star-forming galaxies with redshift. Accounting for selection effects in the combined datasets, we show that the evolution to higher [OIII]/Hb ratios with redshift is a real physical effect which is best accounted for by a model in which the ionization parameter is elevated from the average values typical of local star-forming galaxies, with a possible simultaneous increase in the ISM pressure. We rule out the possibility that the observed [OIII]/Hb evolution is purely due to metallicity evolution. We discuss the implications of these results for using local empirical metallicity calibrations to measure metallicities at high redshift, and briefly discuss possible theoretical implications of our results.
We present results from Subaru/FMOS near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy of 118 star-forming galaxies at $zsim1.5$ in the Subaru Deep Field. These galaxies are selected as [OII]$lambda$3727 emitters at $zapprox$ 1.47 and 1.62 from narrow-band imaging. We detect H$alpha$ emission line in 115 galaxies, [OIII]$lambda$5007 emission line in 45 galaxies, and H$beta$, [NII]$lambda$6584, and [SII]$lambdalambda$6716,6731 in 13, 16, and 6 galaxies, respectively. Including the [OII] emission line, we use the six strong nebular emission lines in the individual and composite rest-frame optical spectra to investigate physical conditions of the interstellar medium in star-forming galaxies at $zsim$1.5. We find a tight correlation between H$alpha$ and [OII], which suggests that [OII] can be a good star formation rate (SFR) indicator for galaxies at $zsim1.5$. The line ratios of H$alpha$/[OII] are consistent with those of local galaxies. We also find that [OII] emitters have strong [OIII] emission lines. The [OIII]/[OII] ratios are larger than normal star-forming galaxies in the local Universe, suggesting a higher ionization parameter. Less massive galaxies have larger [OIII]/[OII] ratios. With evidence that the electron density is consistent with local galaxies, the high ionization of galaxies at high redshifts may be attributed to a harder radiation field by a young stellar population and/or an increase in the number of ionizing photons from each massive star.
We present a study of the [OIII]5007/[OII]3727 (O32) ratios of star-forming galaxies drawn from MUSE data spanning a redshift range 0.28<z<0.85. Recently discovered Lyman continuum (LyC) emitters have extremely high oxygen line ratios: O32>4. Here we aim to understand the properties and the occurrences of galaxies with such high line ratios. Combining data from several MUSE GTO programmes, we select a population of star-forming galaxies with bright emission lines, from which we draw 406 galaxies for our analysis based on their position in the z-dependent star formation rate (SFR) - stellar mass (M*) plane. Out of this sample 15 are identified as extreme oxygen emitters based on their O32 ratios (3.7%) and 104 galaxies have O32>1 (26%). Our analysis shows no significant correlation between M*, SFR, and the distance from the SFR-M* relation with O32. We find a decrease in the fraction of galaxies with O32>1 with increasing M*, however, this is most likely a result of the relationship between O32 and metallicity, rather than between O32 and M*. We draw a comparison sample of local analogues with <z>~0.03 from SDSS, and find similar incidence rates for this sample. In order to investigate the evolution in the fraction of high O32 emitters with redshift, we bin the sample into three redshift subsamples of equal number, but find no evidence for a dependence on redshift. Furthermore, we compare the observed line ratios with those predicted by nebular models with no LyC escape and find that most of the extreme oxygen emitters can be reproduced by low metallicity models. The remaining galaxies are likely LyC emitter candidates. Finally, based on a comparison between electron temperature estimates from the [OIII4363]/[OIII]5007 ratio of the extreme oxygen emitters and nebular models, we argue that the galaxies with the most extreme O32 ratios have young light-weighted ages.
We present a new, publicly available library of dust spectral energy distributions (SEDs). These SEDs are characterized by only three parameters: the dust mass (Mdust), the dust temperature (Tdust), and the mid-to-total infrared color (IR8=LIR/L8). The latter measures the relative contribution of PAH molecules to the LIR. We used this library to model star-forming galaxies at 0.5<z<4 in the CANDELS fields, using both individual detections and stacks of Herschel and ALMA imaging, and extending this sample to z=0 using the Herschel Reference Survey. At first order, the dust SED of a galaxy was found independent of stellar mass, but evolving with redshift. We found trends of increasing Tdust and IR8 with redshift and distance from the SFR--Mstar main sequence (MS), and quantified for the first time their intrinsic scatter. Half of the observed variation of these parameters was captured by these empirical relations, with residual scatters of 12% and 0.18 dex, respectively. Second order variations with stellar mass are discussed. Building on these results, we constructed high-fidelity mock galaxy catalogs to predict the accuracy of LIR and Mdust determined from a single flux measurement. Using a single JWST MIRI band, we found that LIR is typically uncertain by 0.15 dex, with a maximum of 0.25 dex when probing the rest-frame 8 um, and this is not significantly impacted by typical redshift uncertainties. On the other hand, we found that ALMA bands 8-to-7 and 6-to-3 measure Mdust at better than 0.2 and 0.15 dex, respectively, and independently of redshift, while bands 9-to-6 only measure LIR at better than 0.2 dex at z>1, 3.2, 3.8, and 5.7, respectively. Starburst galaxies above the MS have LIR significantly underestimated and Mdust overestimated. These results can be used immediately to interpret more accurately the large amount of archival data from Spitzer, Herschel and ALMA. [abridged]
We present new results from near-infrared spectroscopy with Keck/MOSFIRE of [OIII]-selected galaxies at $zsim3.2$. With our $H$ and $K$-band spectra, we investigate the interstellar medium (ISM) conditions, such as ionization states and gas metallicities. [OIII] emitters at $zsim3.2$ show a typical gas metallicity of $mathrm{12+log(O/H) = 8.07pm0.07}$ at $mathrm{log(M_*/M_odot) sim 9.0-9.2}$ and $mathrm{12+log(O/H) = 8.31pm0.04}$ at $mathrm{log(M_*/M_odot) sim 9.7-10.2}$ when using the empirical calibration method. We compare the [OIII] emitters at $zsim3.2$ with UV-selected galaxies and Ly$alpha$ emitters at the same epoch and find that the [OIII]-based selection does not appear to show any systematic bias in the selection of star-forming galaxies. Moreover, comparing with star-forming galaxies at $zsim2$ from literature, our samples show similar ionization parameters and gas metallicities as those obtained by the previous studies using the same calibration method. We find no strong redshift evolution in the ISM conditions between $zsim3.2$ and $zsim2$. Considering that the star formation rates at a fixed stellar mass also do not significantly change between the two epochs, our results support the idea that the stellar mass is the primary quantity to describe the evolutionary stages of individual galaxies at $z>2$.
We study relations between global characteristics of low-redshift (0 < z < 1) compact star-forming galaxies, including absolute optical magnitudes, Hbeta emission-line luminosities (or equivalently star-formation rates), stellar masses, and oxygen abundances. The sample consists of 5182 galaxies with high-excitation HII regions selected from the SDSS DR7 and SDSS/BOSS DR10 surveys adopting a criterion [OIII]4959/Hbeta > 1. These data were combined with the corresponding data for high-redshift (2 < z < 3) star-forming galaxies. We find that in all diagrams low-z and high-z star-forming galaxies are closely related indicating a very weak dependence of metallicity on stellar mass, redshift, and star-formation rate. This finding argues in favour of the universal character of the global relations for compact star-forming galaxies with high-excitation HII regions over redshifts 0 < z < 3.