The AURORA Survey: High-Redshift Empirical Metallicity Calibrations from Electron Temperature Measurements at z=2-10
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2025
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| author | Sanders, Ryan L. Shapley, Alice E. Topping, Michael W. Reddy, Naveen A. Berg, Danielle A. Khostovan, Ali Ahmad Bouwens, Rychard J. Brammer, Gabriel Carnall, Adam C. Cullen, Fergus Davé, Romeel Dunlop, James S. Ellis, Richard S. Schreiber, N. M. Förster Furlanetto, Steven R. Glazebrook, Karl Illingworth, Garth D. Jones, Tucker Kriek, Mariska McLeod, Derek J. McLure, Ross J. Narayanan, Desika Oesch, Pascal A. Pahl, Anthony J. Pettini, Max Schaerer, Daniel Stark, Daniel P. Steidel, Charles C. Tang, Mengtao Clarke, Leonardo Donnan, Callum T. Kehoe, Emily |
| author_facet | Sanders, Ryan L. Shapley, Alice E. Topping, Michael W. Reddy, Naveen A. Berg, Danielle A. Khostovan, Ali Ahmad Bouwens, Rychard J. Brammer, Gabriel Carnall, Adam C. Cullen, Fergus Davé, Romeel Dunlop, James S. Ellis, Richard S. Schreiber, N. M. Förster Furlanetto, Steven R. Glazebrook, Karl Illingworth, Garth D. Jones, Tucker Kriek, Mariska McLeod, Derek J. McLure, Ross J. Narayanan, Desika Oesch, Pascal A. Pahl, Anthony J. Pettini, Max Schaerer, Daniel Stark, Daniel P. Steidel, Charles C. Tang, Mengtao Clarke, Leonardo Donnan, Callum T. Kehoe, Emily |
| contents | We present detections of auroral emission lines of [OIII], [OII], [SIII], and [SII] in deep JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy for 41 star-forming galaxies at $z=1.4-7.2$ from the AURORA survey. We combine these new observations with 98 star-forming galaxies at $z=1.3-10.6$ with detected auroral lines drawn from the literature to form a sample of 139 high-redshift galaxies with robust electron temperature and direct-method oxygen abundance determinations. This sample notably covers a wider dynamic range in metallicity than previous work, spanning $0.02-0.9$~Z$_\odot$. We calibrate empirical relations between 19 emission-line ratios and oxygen abundance, providing a robust tool set to infer accurate gas-phase metallicities of high-redshift galaxies when auroral lines are not detected. While calibrations based on lines of $α$ elements (O, Ne, S, Ar) appear reliable, we find significant scatter in calibrations involving lines of N driven by a high dispersion in N/O at fixed O/H, suggesting that N-based line ratios are less reliable tracers of the oxygen abundance at high redshift. These new high-redshift calibrations are notably offset from those based on typical $z\sim0$ galaxy and HII region samples, and are better matched by samples of extreme local galaxies that are analogs of high-redshift sources. The new metallicity calibrations presented in this work pave the way for robust studies of galaxy chemical evolution in the early Universe, leading to a better understanding of baryon cycling and galaxy formation from Cosmic Noon through the Epoch of Reionization. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_10099 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | The AURORA Survey: High-Redshift Empirical Metallicity Calibrations from Electron Temperature Measurements at z=2-10 Sanders, Ryan L. Shapley, Alice E. Topping, Michael W. Reddy, Naveen A. Berg, Danielle A. Khostovan, Ali Ahmad Bouwens, Rychard J. Brammer, Gabriel Carnall, Adam C. Cullen, Fergus Davé, Romeel Dunlop, James S. Ellis, Richard S. Schreiber, N. M. Förster Furlanetto, Steven R. Glazebrook, Karl Illingworth, Garth D. Jones, Tucker Kriek, Mariska McLeod, Derek J. McLure, Ross J. Narayanan, Desika Oesch, Pascal A. Pahl, Anthony J. Pettini, Max Schaerer, Daniel Stark, Daniel P. Steidel, Charles C. Tang, Mengtao Clarke, Leonardo Donnan, Callum T. Kehoe, Emily Astrophysics of Galaxies We present detections of auroral emission lines of [OIII], [OII], [SIII], and [SII] in deep JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy for 41 star-forming galaxies at $z=1.4-7.2$ from the AURORA survey. We combine these new observations with 98 star-forming galaxies at $z=1.3-10.6$ with detected auroral lines drawn from the literature to form a sample of 139 high-redshift galaxies with robust electron temperature and direct-method oxygen abundance determinations. This sample notably covers a wider dynamic range in metallicity than previous work, spanning $0.02-0.9$~Z$_\odot$. We calibrate empirical relations between 19 emission-line ratios and oxygen abundance, providing a robust tool set to infer accurate gas-phase metallicities of high-redshift galaxies when auroral lines are not detected. While calibrations based on lines of $α$ elements (O, Ne, S, Ar) appear reliable, we find significant scatter in calibrations involving lines of N driven by a high dispersion in N/O at fixed O/H, suggesting that N-based line ratios are less reliable tracers of the oxygen abundance at high redshift. These new high-redshift calibrations are notably offset from those based on typical $z\sim0$ galaxy and HII region samples, and are better matched by samples of extreme local galaxies that are analogs of high-redshift sources. The new metallicity calibrations presented in this work pave the way for robust studies of galaxy chemical evolution in the early Universe, leading to a better understanding of baryon cycling and galaxy formation from Cosmic Noon through the Epoch of Reionization. |
| title | The AURORA Survey: High-Redshift Empirical Metallicity Calibrations from Electron Temperature Measurements at z=2-10 |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.10099 |