REBELS-IFU: Evidence for metal-rich massive galaxies at z~6-8
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| author | Rowland, Lucie E. Stefanon, Mauro Bouwens, Rychard Hodge, Jacqueline Algera, Hiddo Fisher, Rebecca Dayal, Pratika Pallottini, Andrea Stark, Daniel P. Heintz, Kasper E. Aravena, Manuel Bowler, Rebecca Cescon, Karin Endsley, Ryan Ferrara, Andrea Gonzalez, Valentino Graziani, Luca Gulis, Cindy Herard-Demanche, Thomas Inami, Hanae Laza-Ramos, Andrès van Leeuwen, Ivana de Looze, Ilse Nanayakkara, Themiya Oesch, Pascal Ormerod, Katherine Sartorio, Nina S. Schouws, Sander Smit, Renske Sommovigo, Laura Toft, Sune Weaver, John R. van der Werf, Paul |
| author_facet | Rowland, Lucie E. Stefanon, Mauro Bouwens, Rychard Hodge, Jacqueline Algera, Hiddo Fisher, Rebecca Dayal, Pratika Pallottini, Andrea Stark, Daniel P. Heintz, Kasper E. Aravena, Manuel Bowler, Rebecca Cescon, Karin Endsley, Ryan Ferrara, Andrea Gonzalez, Valentino Graziani, Luca Gulis, Cindy Herard-Demanche, Thomas Inami, Hanae Laza-Ramos, Andrès van Leeuwen, Ivana de Looze, Ilse Nanayakkara, Themiya Oesch, Pascal Ormerod, Katherine Sartorio, Nina S. Schouws, Sander Smit, Renske Sommovigo, Laura Toft, Sune Weaver, John R. van der Werf, Paul |
| contents | Metallicity is a crucial tracer of galaxy evolution, providing insights into gas accretion, star formation, and feedback. At high redshift, these processes reveal how early galaxies assembled and enriched their interstellar medium. In this work, we present rest-frame optical spectroscopy of 12 massive ($\log(M_*/\mathrm{M_{\odot}})>9$) galaxies at $z\sim 6$-$8$ from the REBELS ALMA large program, observed with JWST NIRSpec/IFU in the prism mode. These observations span emission lines from [OII]$λ$3727,9 to [SII]$λ$6716,31, providing key information on nebular dust attenuation, ionisation states, and chemical abundances. We find lower O32 ratios (average $\sim3.7$) and [OIII]$λ$5007 equivalent widths (average ${EW_{[OIII]}}\sim390$Å) than are generally found in existing large spectroscopic surveys at $z>6$, indicating less extreme ionising conditions. Strong-line diagnostics suggest that these systems are some of the most metal-rich galaxies observed at $z>6$ (average $Z_{\mathrm{gas}}\sim 0.4 Z_{\odot}$), including sources with near-solar oxygen abundances, in line with their high stellar masses (average $\log{M_*/\mathrm{M_{\odot}}}\sim9.5$). Supplementing with literature sources at lower masses, we investigate the mass-metallicity and fundamental metallicity relations (MZR and FMR, respectively) over a 4 dex stellar mass range at $6<z<8$. In contrast to recent studies of lower-mass galaxies, we find no evidence for negative offsets to the $z=0$ FMR for the REBELS galaxies. This work demonstrates the existence of chemically-enriched galaxies just $\sim1$ Gyr after the Big Bang, and indicates that the MZR is already in place at these early times, in agreement with other recent $z>3$ studies. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2501_10559 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | REBELS-IFU: Evidence for metal-rich massive galaxies at z~6-8 Rowland, Lucie E. Stefanon, Mauro Bouwens, Rychard Hodge, Jacqueline Algera, Hiddo Fisher, Rebecca Dayal, Pratika Pallottini, Andrea Stark, Daniel P. Heintz, Kasper E. Aravena, Manuel Bowler, Rebecca Cescon, Karin Endsley, Ryan Ferrara, Andrea Gonzalez, Valentino Graziani, Luca Gulis, Cindy Herard-Demanche, Thomas Inami, Hanae Laza-Ramos, Andrès van Leeuwen, Ivana de Looze, Ilse Nanayakkara, Themiya Oesch, Pascal Ormerod, Katherine Sartorio, Nina S. Schouws, Sander Smit, Renske Sommovigo, Laura Toft, Sune Weaver, John R. van der Werf, Paul Astrophysics of Galaxies Metallicity is a crucial tracer of galaxy evolution, providing insights into gas accretion, star formation, and feedback. At high redshift, these processes reveal how early galaxies assembled and enriched their interstellar medium. In this work, we present rest-frame optical spectroscopy of 12 massive ($\log(M_*/\mathrm{M_{\odot}})>9$) galaxies at $z\sim 6$-$8$ from the REBELS ALMA large program, observed with JWST NIRSpec/IFU in the prism mode. These observations span emission lines from [OII]$λ$3727,9 to [SII]$λ$6716,31, providing key information on nebular dust attenuation, ionisation states, and chemical abundances. We find lower O32 ratios (average $\sim3.7$) and [OIII]$λ$5007 equivalent widths (average ${EW_{[OIII]}}\sim390$Å) than are generally found in existing large spectroscopic surveys at $z>6$, indicating less extreme ionising conditions. Strong-line diagnostics suggest that these systems are some of the most metal-rich galaxies observed at $z>6$ (average $Z_{\mathrm{gas}}\sim 0.4 Z_{\odot}$), including sources with near-solar oxygen abundances, in line with their high stellar masses (average $\log{M_*/\mathrm{M_{\odot}}}\sim9.5$). Supplementing with literature sources at lower masses, we investigate the mass-metallicity and fundamental metallicity relations (MZR and FMR, respectively) over a 4 dex stellar mass range at $6<z<8$. In contrast to recent studies of lower-mass galaxies, we find no evidence for negative offsets to the $z=0$ FMR for the REBELS galaxies. This work demonstrates the existence of chemically-enriched galaxies just $\sim1$ Gyr after the Big Bang, and indicates that the MZR is already in place at these early times, in agreement with other recent $z>3$ studies. |
| title | REBELS-IFU: Evidence for metal-rich massive galaxies at z~6-8 |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.10559 |