Evidence for chemical evolution in the spectra of high redshift galaxies
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arXiv:astro-ph/0208231v1 12 Aug 2002Astronomy&Astrophysicsmanuscriptno.(willbeinsertedbyhandlater)
Evidenceforchemicalevolutioninthespectraofhighredshiftgalaxies⋆
D.Mehlert1,S.Noll1,I.Appenzeller1,R.P.Saglia2,R.Bender2,A.B¨ohm3,N.Drory2,K.Fricke3,A.Gabasch2,J.Heidt1,U.Hopp2,K.J¨ager3,C.M¨ollenhoff1,S.Seitz2,O.Stahl1,andB.Ziegler3
1LandessternwarteHeidelberg,K¨onigstuhl,D-69117Heidelberg,Germany
2Universit¨atssternwarteM¨unchen,Scheinerstraße1,D-81679M¨unchen,Germany
3Universit¨ats-SternwarteG¨ottingen,Geismarlandstraße11,D-37083G¨ottingen,Germany
ReceivedJune14;acceptedJuly2,2002Abstract.Usingasampleof57VLTFORSspectraintheredshiftrange1.37theFORSDeepFieldsurvey)andacomparisonsamplewith36IUEspectraoflocal(z≈0)starburstgalaxieswederiveCivandSiivequivalentwidthvaluesandestimatemetallicitiesofstarburstgalaxiesasafunctionofredshift.AssumingthatacalibrationoftheCivequivalentwidthsintermsofthemetallicitybasedonthelocalsampleofstarburstgalaxiesisapplicabletohigh-zobjects,wefindasignificantincreaseoftheaveragemetallicitiesfromabout0.16Z⊙atthecosmicepochcorrespondingtoz≈3.2toabout0.42Z⊙atz≈2.3.Asignificantfurtherincreaseinmetallicityduringlaterepochscannotbedetectedinourdata.Comparedtothelocalstarburstgalaxiesourhigh-redshiftobjectstendtobeoverluminousforafixedmetallicity.Ourobservationalresultsareingoodagreementwithpublishedobservationaldatabyotherauthorsandwiththeoreticalpredictionsofthecosmicchemicalevolution.
Keywords.galaxies:starburst–galaxies:evolution–galaxies:formation–galaxies:stellarcontent–galaxies:fundamentalparameters
1.IntroductionAmongtheunsolvedquestionsofcosmologyisthebegin-ningandevolutionofthestarformationprocessatearlycosmicepochs.Fromthepresenceofheavynucleiinhigh-zquasarsandgalaxiesitisclearthatstarformationstartedratherearly(seee.g.HamannandFerland1999,Dietrichetal.1999).Moreover,galaxycountsandemissionlinestudiesofhigh-zgalaxiesindicatethatthestarformationrate(SFR)declinedrapidlysinceatleasttheepochcor-respondingtoredshiftsofz≈2(seee.g.Madauetal.1996,Madau2000).Ontheotherhandintrinsicinterstel-larextinction(whichmayaffectstronglytherest-frameUVofdistantgalaxies)anduncertaintiesconcerningtherelationbetweenlineemissionandthestarformationin-troduceconsiderableuncertaintiesintothederivationoftheglobalstarformationrateatearlycosmicepochsfromvisualgalaxycountsandemissionlinestudies,whilein-2Mehlertetal.:EvidenceforchemicalevolutioninthespectraofhighredshiftgalaxiesFig.1.Examplesofthelow-resolutiongalaxyspectraobtainedwithFORS.Theredshiftoftheobjectsisincreasingfrompanela)toc).Thedottedlineindicatesthenoiselevelwhich(duetothenightskyspectrumandthewavelengthdependentinstrumentalefficiency)varieswithwavelength.TheS/Nofthesespectraisabout≤16,43and12forobject7029,5903and6063,respectively.TheobjectdesignationscorrespondtothecatalogofHeidtetal.(2002).Fororientationtheexpectedpositionsofselectedspectrallinesareindicatedbyverticaldashedlines.Thetwoapparentemissionfeatures(markedbyarrows)longwardoftheCivabsorptionfeatureareartifactsandresultedfromtheincreasednoiseatthiswavelengthsduetotelluricOHbandedgesandatmosphericabsorption.ForthesamereasonFig.1cbecomesunreliablebeyond7000˚A.Mehlertetal.:Evidenceforchemicalevolutioninthespectraofhighredshiftgalaxies3theotherhandmostofthepublishedspectraofhigh-zgalaxiesarenotofsufficientS/Ntoprovidequalitativeinformationonthemetalcontent.Therefore,weobtainednewhighS/Nspectraofgalaxieswithz≤3.5withtheaimofstudyingthechemicalevolutionofstarburstgalax-iesathighredshifts.InthepresentpaperwedescriberesultsontheCivabsorptionlinestrengthandtheirinterpretationintermsofchemicalevolutionwithcosmicageatredshifts0tude(I≤24.5mag)forphotometricredshiftsintherange2.2redshiftsisingoodagreementwiththephotometricred-shiftdistributionoftheFDFwhichhaspeaksatredshiftsofaround2.4and3.4(seeFig.3inBenderetal.2001).Exceptionsaretheredshiftsintherange1.4≤z≤2.2wherealackofstrongspectroscopicfeaturesinourob-servedwavelengthrangemakesareliablespectroscopicredshiftdeterminationratherdifficult,resultinginanar-tificiallownumberofobjectsinourspectroscopicsample.ForthepresentinvestigationweselectedthoseFDFgalaxiesshowingabsorptionlinespectrawithanade-quateS/N(>10perresolutionelement)forameaning-fulquantitativeanalysisoftheCivresonancedoublet.Allthesegalaxiesshowtypicalstarburstcharacteristicsintheirspectrasuchasintense(restframe)UVcontinuaandhighlyionizedmetalabsorptionlines.ThreeexamplesofFDFspectraaredisplayedinFig.1.The10high-redshiftgalaxieswhicharedominatedbytheirLyαemissionwerenotincludedinourstudy.Thisleadstoalimitationofthesampletogalaxieswithz<4,sincemostofthefewFDFgalaxieswithlargerredshifts(upto5.0)observedsofarshowstrongLyαemission(whilepureabsorptionlinespectradominateatlowerredshifts;seeNolletal.2002).Alsoexcludedfromourstudywere4objectsthatshowabsorptionlineswithclearemissioncomponents,formingP-Cygniprofiles.(TheapparentemissionpeakredwardsfromtheCivabsorptionfeatureinFig.1cisnotaPCygniemissioncomponent.Theabsorptionlineisunshiftedand,aspointedoutinthecaption,theapparentemissioncom-ponentisanartifact).Inordertoenlargeoursamplesomewhatweadded6additionalFORSspectra(matchingthecriterialistedabove)whichhadbeenobservedwiththesamesetupdur-ingtheFORScommissioningruns(andarenowavailablefromtheVLTarchive).Fouroftheseadditionalspectrawereselectedamongthegravitationallyamplifiedgalaxiesbehindthecluster1E0657-558(Mehlertetal.2001).WefurtherincludedtwospectrafromtheHDF-SandAXAFDeepFieldfollow-upstudies(Cristianietal.2000),whichmetourcriteria.ThecomparisonsampleofIUElowresolutionspectrafromtheIUEarchive1consistsof36local(z≈0)starburstgalaxiesinvestigatedbyHeckmanetal.(1998)2.AlltheseIUEspectrawereobtainedwiththeShortWavelength