Nitrogen abundances in star-forming galaxies 2.2 Gyr after the Big Bang are not elevated
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2026
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| author | Schaerer, D. Izotov, Y. I. Marques-Chaves, R. Steidel, C. C. Reddy, N. Shapley, A. E. Mascia, S. Chisholm, J. Flury, S. R. Guseva, N. Heckman, T. Henry, A. Inoue, A. K. Jung, I. Kusakabe, H. Mawatari, K. Oesch, P. Oestlin, G. Pentericci, L. Roy, N. Saldana-Lopez, A. Sato, R. Vanzella, E. Verhamme, A. Wang, B. |
| author_facet | Schaerer, D. Izotov, Y. I. Marques-Chaves, R. Steidel, C. C. Reddy, N. Shapley, A. E. Mascia, S. Chisholm, J. Flury, S. R. Guseva, N. Heckman, T. Henry, A. Inoue, A. K. Jung, I. Kusakabe, H. Mawatari, K. Oesch, P. Oestlin, G. Pentericci, L. Roy, N. Saldana-Lopez, A. Sato, R. Vanzella, E. Verhamme, A. Wang, B. |
| contents | Using deep medium-resolution JWST rest-optical spectra of a sample of typical star-forming galaxies (Lyman break galaxies and Lyman-$α$ emitters) from the LyC22 survey at $z \sim 3$, we determined the nebular abundances of N, O, and Ne relative to H for a subsample of 25 objects with the direct method, based on auroral [OIII]4363 line detections. Our measurements increases the number of accurate N/O determinations at $z \sim 2-4$ using a homogeneous approach. We found a mean value of $\log({\rm N/O})=-1.29^{+0.25}_{-0.21} $ over a metallicity range 12+log(O/H)=7.5 to 8.44. The observed N/O ratio and scatter are indistinguishable from that observed in low-z galaxies and HII regions over the same metallicity range, showing thus no redshift evolution of N/O for typical galaxies over a significant fraction of cosmic time. We also show that typical $z \sim 3$ galaxies show a similar offset in the BPT diagram as galaxies from the low-z Lyman Continuum Survey (LzLCS), when compared to the average of SDSS galaxies, and show that this offset is not due to enhanced nitrogen abundances. Our results establish a basis for future studies of the evolution of N and O at higher redshifts. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_06968 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Nitrogen abundances in star-forming galaxies 2.2 Gyr after the Big Bang are not elevated Schaerer, D. Izotov, Y. I. Marques-Chaves, R. Steidel, C. C. Reddy, N. Shapley, A. E. Mascia, S. Chisholm, J. Flury, S. R. Guseva, N. Heckman, T. Henry, A. Inoue, A. K. Jung, I. Kusakabe, H. Mawatari, K. Oesch, P. Oestlin, G. Pentericci, L. Roy, N. Saldana-Lopez, A. Sato, R. Vanzella, E. Verhamme, A. Wang, B. Astrophysics of Galaxies Using deep medium-resolution JWST rest-optical spectra of a sample of typical star-forming galaxies (Lyman break galaxies and Lyman-$α$ emitters) from the LyC22 survey at $z \sim 3$, we determined the nebular abundances of N, O, and Ne relative to H for a subsample of 25 objects with the direct method, based on auroral [OIII]4363 line detections. Our measurements increases the number of accurate N/O determinations at $z \sim 2-4$ using a homogeneous approach. We found a mean value of $\log({\rm N/O})=-1.29^{+0.25}_{-0.21} $ over a metallicity range 12+log(O/H)=7.5 to 8.44. The observed N/O ratio and scatter are indistinguishable from that observed in low-z galaxies and HII regions over the same metallicity range, showing thus no redshift evolution of N/O for typical galaxies over a significant fraction of cosmic time. We also show that typical $z \sim 3$ galaxies show a similar offset in the BPT diagram as galaxies from the low-z Lyman Continuum Survey (LzLCS), when compared to the average of SDSS galaxies, and show that this offset is not due to enhanced nitrogen abundances. Our results establish a basis for future studies of the evolution of N and O at higher redshifts. |
| title | Nitrogen abundances in star-forming galaxies 2.2 Gyr after the Big Bang are not elevated |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.06968 |