Diverse Oxygen Abundance in Early Galaxies Unveiled by Auroral Line Analysis with JWST

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Morishita, Takahiro, Stiavelli, Massimo, Grillo, Claudio, Rosati, Piero, Schuldt, Stefan, Trenti, Michele, Bergamini, Pietro, Boyett, Kristan N., Chary, Ranga-Ram, Leethochawalit, Nicha, Roberts-Borsani, Guido, Treu, Tommaso, Vanzella, Eros
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Morishita, Takahiro
Stiavelli, Massimo
Grillo, Claudio
Rosati, Piero
Schuldt, Stefan
Trenti, Michele
Bergamini, Pietro
Boyett, Kristan N.
Chary, Ranga-Ram
Leethochawalit, Nicha
Roberts-Borsani, Guido
Treu, Tommaso
Vanzella, Eros
author_facet Morishita, Takahiro
Stiavelli, Massimo
Grillo, Claudio
Rosati, Piero
Schuldt, Stefan
Trenti, Michele
Bergamini, Pietro
Boyett, Kristan N.
Chary, Ranga-Ram
Leethochawalit, Nicha
Roberts-Borsani, Guido
Treu, Tommaso
Vanzella, Eros
contents We present deep JWST NIRSpec observations in the sightline of MACS J1149.5+2223, a massive cluster of galaxies at $z=0.54$. We report the spectroscopic redshift of 28 sources at $3<z<9.1$, including 9 sources with the detection of the [OIII]4363 auroral line. Combining these with 16 [OIII]4363-detected sources from publicly available JWST data, our sample consists of 25 galaxies with robust gas-phase metallicity measurements via the direct method. We observe a positive correlation between stellar mass and metallicity, with a $\sim0.5$\,dex offset down below the local relation. Interestingly, we find a larger than expected scatter of $\sim0.3$\,dex around the relation, which cannot be explained by redshift evolution among our sample or other third parameter. The scatter increases at higher redshift, and we attribute this to the enrichment process having higher stochasticity due to shallower potential wells, more intense feedback processes, and a higher galaxy merger rate. Despite reaching to a considerably low-mass regime ($\log M_*/M_\odot \sim7.3$), our samples have metallicity of $\log$(O/H)$+12>7$, i.e. comparable to the most metal poor galaxies in the local Universe. The search of primordial galaxies may be accomplished by extending toward a lower mass and/or by investigating inhomogeneities at smaller spatial scales. Lastly, we investigate potential systematics caused by the limitation of JWST's MSA observations. Caution is warranted when the target exceeds the slit size, as this situation could allow an overestimation of "global" metallicity, especially under the presence of strong negative metallicity gradient.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_14084
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Diverse Oxygen Abundance in Early Galaxies Unveiled by Auroral Line Analysis with JWST
Morishita, Takahiro
Stiavelli, Massimo
Grillo, Claudio
Rosati, Piero
Schuldt, Stefan
Trenti, Michele
Bergamini, Pietro
Boyett, Kristan N.
Chary, Ranga-Ram
Leethochawalit, Nicha
Roberts-Borsani, Guido
Treu, Tommaso
Vanzella, Eros
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We present deep JWST NIRSpec observations in the sightline of MACS J1149.5+2223, a massive cluster of galaxies at $z=0.54$. We report the spectroscopic redshift of 28 sources at $3<z<9.1$, including 9 sources with the detection of the [OIII]4363 auroral line. Combining these with 16 [OIII]4363-detected sources from publicly available JWST data, our sample consists of 25 galaxies with robust gas-phase metallicity measurements via the direct method. We observe a positive correlation between stellar mass and metallicity, with a $\sim0.5$\,dex offset down below the local relation. Interestingly, we find a larger than expected scatter of $\sim0.3$\,dex around the relation, which cannot be explained by redshift evolution among our sample or other third parameter. The scatter increases at higher redshift, and we attribute this to the enrichment process having higher stochasticity due to shallower potential wells, more intense feedback processes, and a higher galaxy merger rate. Despite reaching to a considerably low-mass regime ($\log M_*/M_\odot \sim7.3$), our samples have metallicity of $\log$(O/H)$+12>7$, i.e. comparable to the most metal poor galaxies in the local Universe. The search of primordial galaxies may be accomplished by extending toward a lower mass and/or by investigating inhomogeneities at smaller spatial scales. Lastly, we investigate potential systematics caused by the limitation of JWST's MSA observations. Caution is warranted when the target exceeds the slit size, as this situation could allow an overestimation of "global" metallicity, especially under the presence of strong negative metallicity gradient.
title Diverse Oxygen Abundance in Early Galaxies Unveiled by Auroral Line Analysis with JWST
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.14084