Emission-line galaxies at $z\sim1$ from near-IR HST Slitless Spectroscopy: metallicities, star formation rates and redshift confirmations from VLT/FORS2 spectroscopy

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Autores principales: Boyett, K., Bunker, A. J., Chevallard, J, Battisti, A. J., Henry, A. L., Wilkins, S., Malkan, M. A., Caruana, J., Atek, H., Baronchelli, I., Colbert, J., Dai, Y. S., Gardner, Jonathan. P., Rafelski, M., Scarlata, C., Teplitz, H. I., Wang, X.
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Publicado: 2024
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author Boyett, K.
Bunker, A. J.
Chevallard, J
Battisti, A. J.
Henry, A. L.
Wilkins, S.
Malkan, M. A.
Caruana, J.
Atek, H.
Baronchelli, I.
Colbert, J.
Dai, Y. S.
Gardner, Jonathan. P.
Rafelski, M.
Scarlata, C.
Teplitz, H. I.
Wang, X.
author_facet Boyett, K.
Bunker, A. J.
Chevallard, J
Battisti, A. J.
Henry, A. L.
Wilkins, S.
Malkan, M. A.
Caruana, J.
Atek, H.
Baronchelli, I.
Colbert, J.
Dai, Y. S.
Gardner, Jonathan. P.
Rafelski, M.
Scarlata, C.
Teplitz, H. I.
Wang, X.
contents We follow up emission line galaxies identified through the near-infrared slitless HST/WFC3 WISP survey with VLT/FORS2 optical spectroscopy. Over 4 WISP fields, we targetted 85 of 138 line emission objects at $0.4<z<2$ identified in WFC3 spectroscopy. Half the galaxies are fainter than $H_{AB}=24$mag, and would not have been included in many well-known surveys based on broad-band magnitude selection. We confirm 95% of the initial WFC3 grism redshifts in the 38 cases where we detect lines in FORS2 spectroscopy. However, for targets which exhibited a single emission line in WFC3, up to 65% at $z<1.28$ did not have expected emission lines detected in FORS2 and hence may be spurious (although this false-detection rate improves to 33% using the latest public WISP emission line catalogue). From the Balmer decrement the extinction of the WISP galaxies is consistent with $A($H$α)=1$mag. From SED fits to multi-band photometry including Spitzer $3.6μ$m, we find a median stellar mass of $\log_{10}(M/M_{\odot})=8.94$. Our emission-line-selected galaxies tend to lie above the star-forming main sequence (i.e. higher specific star formation rates). Using [OIII], [OII] and H$β$ lines to derive gas-phase metallicities, we find typically sub-solar metallicities, decreasing with redshift. Our WISP galaxies lie below the $z=0$ mass-metallicity relation, and galaxies with higher star formation rates tend to have lower metallicity. Finally, we find a strong increase with redshift of the H$α$ rest-frame equivalent width in this emission-line selected sample, with higher $EW_0$ galaxies having larger [OIII]/H$β$ and O32 ratios on average, suggesting lower metallicity or higher ionisation parameter in these extreme emission line galaxies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_07497
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Emission-line galaxies at $z\sim1$ from near-IR HST Slitless Spectroscopy: metallicities, star formation rates and redshift confirmations from VLT/FORS2 spectroscopy
Boyett, K.
Bunker, A. J.
Chevallard, J
Battisti, A. J.
Henry, A. L.
Wilkins, S.
Malkan, M. A.
Caruana, J.
Atek, H.
Baronchelli, I.
Colbert, J.
Dai, Y. S.
Gardner, Jonathan. P.
Rafelski, M.
Scarlata, C.
Teplitz, H. I.
Wang, X.
Astrophysics of Galaxies
We follow up emission line galaxies identified through the near-infrared slitless HST/WFC3 WISP survey with VLT/FORS2 optical spectroscopy. Over 4 WISP fields, we targetted 85 of 138 line emission objects at $0.4<z<2$ identified in WFC3 spectroscopy. Half the galaxies are fainter than $H_{AB}=24$mag, and would not have been included in many well-known surveys based on broad-band magnitude selection. We confirm 95% of the initial WFC3 grism redshifts in the 38 cases where we detect lines in FORS2 spectroscopy. However, for targets which exhibited a single emission line in WFC3, up to 65% at $z<1.28$ did not have expected emission lines detected in FORS2 and hence may be spurious (although this false-detection rate improves to 33% using the latest public WISP emission line catalogue). From the Balmer decrement the extinction of the WISP galaxies is consistent with $A($H$α)=1$mag. From SED fits to multi-band photometry including Spitzer $3.6μ$m, we find a median stellar mass of $\log_{10}(M/M_{\odot})=8.94$. Our emission-line-selected galaxies tend to lie above the star-forming main sequence (i.e. higher specific star formation rates). Using [OIII], [OII] and H$β$ lines to derive gas-phase metallicities, we find typically sub-solar metallicities, decreasing with redshift. Our WISP galaxies lie below the $z=0$ mass-metallicity relation, and galaxies with higher star formation rates tend to have lower metallicity. Finally, we find a strong increase with redshift of the H$α$ rest-frame equivalent width in this emission-line selected sample, with higher $EW_0$ galaxies having larger [OIII]/H$β$ and O32 ratios on average, suggesting lower metallicity or higher ionisation parameter in these extreme emission line galaxies.
title Emission-line galaxies at $z\sim1$ from near-IR HST Slitless Spectroscopy: metallicities, star formation rates and redshift confirmations from VLT/FORS2 spectroscopy
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.07497