The chemical composition of the gas in galaxies versus cosmic time provides a very important tool for understanding galaxy evolution. Although there are many studies at high redshift, they are rather scarce at lower redshifts. However, low redshift studies can provide important clues about the evolution of galaxies, furnishing the required link between local and high redshift universe. In this work we focus on the metallicity of the gas of star-forming galaxies at low redshift, looking for signs of chemical evolution.
To analyze the metallicity contents star-forming galaxies of similar luminosities and masses at different redshifts. With this purpose, we present a study of the metallicity of relatively massive (log(M_star/M_sun)>10.5) star forming galaxies from SDSS--DR5 (Sloan Digital Sky Survey--Data Release 5), using different redshift intervals from 0.04 to 0.4.
We used data processed with the STARLIGHT spectral synthesis code, correcting the fluxes for dust extinction, estimating metallicities using the R_23 method, and segregating the samples with respect to the value of the [NII]6583/[OII]3727 line ratio in order to break the R_23 degeneracy selecting the upper branch. We analyze the luminosity and mass-metallicity relations, and the effect of the Sloan fiber diameter looking for possible biases.
By dividing our redshift samples in intervals of similar magnitude and comparing them, significant signs of metallicity evolution are found. Metallicity correlates inversely with redshift: from redshift 0 to 0.4 a decrement of ~0.1 dex in 12+log(O/H) is found.
Spectra of high-metallicity (12+log(O/H) > 8.2) HII regions where oxygen auroral lines are measurable in both the O+ and O++ zones, have been extracted from the Data Release 6 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). Our final sample consists of 181 SDSS spectra of HII regions in galaxies in the redshift range from ~0.025 to ~0.17. The t_2,O-t_3,O diagram is examined. In the SDSS HII regions, the electron temperature t_2,O is found to have a large scatter at a given value of the electron temperature t_3,O. The majority of the SDSS HII regions lie below the t_2,O-t_3,O relation derived for HII r…
During the last three decades, many papers have reported the existence of a luminosity-metallicity or mass-metallicity (M-Z) relation for all kinds of galaxies: The more massive galaxies are also the ones with more metal-rich interstellar medium. We have obtained the mass-metallicity relation at different lookback times for the same set of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), using the stellar metallicities estimated with our spectral synthesis code STARLIGHT. Using stellar metallicities has several advantages: We are free of the biases that affect the calibration of nebular meta…
We analyse the oxygen abundance and specific star formation rates (sSFR) variations with redshift in star-forming SDSS galaxies of different masses. We find that the maximum value of the sSFR, sSFRmax, decreases when the stellar mass, Ms, of a galaxy increases, and decreases with decreasing of redshift. The sSFRmax can exceed the time-averaged sSFR by about an order of magnitude for massive galaxies. The metallicity - redshift relations for subsamples of galaxies with sSFR = sSFRmax and with sSFR = 0.1sSFRmax coincide for massive (log(Ms/Mo) > 10.5, with stellar mass Ms in solar units) galaxie…
We exploit the SDSS galaxy groups catalogue of Yang et al. to study how the gas-phase metallicities of star-forming galaxies depend on environment. We find that satellite and central galaxies follow a qualitatively similar stellar mass (M_*) - gas-phase metallicity relation. Satellites, though, have higher gas-phase metallicities than equally massive centrals, and this difference increases with decreasing M_*. We also find that the gas-phase metallicity of satellites increases with halo mass at fixed stellar mass. This increment is more pronounced for less massive galaxies. We also show that l…
The relation between galaxy stellar mass and gas-phase metallicity is a sensitive diagnostic of the main processes that drive galaxy evolution, namely cosmological gas inflow, metal production in stars, and gas outflow via galactic winds. We employed the direct method to measure the metallicities of ~200,000 star-forming galaxies from the SDSS that were stacked in bins of (1) stellar mass and (2) both stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) to significantly enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of the weak [O III] 4363 and [O II] 7320, 7330 auroral lines required to apply the direct method. The…
We present new MMT spectroscopic observations of four dwarf galaxies representative of a larger sample observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and identified by Peeples et al. (2008) as low-mass, high oxygen abundance outliers from the mass-metallicity relation. Peeples et al. (2008) showed that these four objects (with metallicity estimates of 8.5 =< 12 + log(O/H) =< 8.8) have oxygen abundance offsets of 0.4-0.6 dex from the M_B luminosity-metallicity relation. Our new observations extend the wavelength coverage to include the [OII] 3726,3729 doublet, which adds leverage in oxygen abu…
In this investigation we quantify the metallicities of low mass galaxies by constructing the most comprehensive census to date. We use galaxies from the SDSS and DEEP2 survey and estimate metallicities from their optical emission lines. We also use two smaller samples from the literature which have metallicities determined by the direct method using the temperature sensitive [OIII]4363 line. We examine the scatter in the local mass-metallicity (MZ) relation determined from ~20,000 star-forming galaxies in the SDSS and show that it is larger at lower stellar masses, consistent with the theoreti…
We explore the dependence of the galaxy mass-metallicity relation on environment in SDSS, in terms of both over-density and central/satellite dichotomy. We find that at a given stellar mass, there is a strong dependence of metallicity on over-density for star-forming satellites. Instead, for star-forming centrals no correlation is found. Star-forming satellites at different stellar masses form a tight sequence in the average overdensity - metallicity plane, which covers the entire observed range of metallicities and stellar masses. This remarkable result appears to imply that there exists a un…
Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) are characterized by a clear correlation between luminosity and metallicity (L_AGN-Z_AGN relation). The origin of this correlation is not clear. It may result from a relation between the black hole mass (M_BH) and metallicity, or from a relation between the accretion rate (L/L_Edd) and metallicity. To investigate the origin of the L_AGN-Z_AGN relation, we use optical spectra of 2383 quasars at 2.3 < z < 3.0 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By using this data set, we have constructed composite spectra of 33 subsamples in intervals of both M_BH and L/L_Edd. From t…
We have obtained long-slit spectra of 174 star-forming galaxies with stellar masses greater than 10^10 M_\odot from the GALEX Arecibo SDSS (GASS) survey. These galaxies have both HI and H_2 mass measurements. The average metallicity profile is strikingly flat out to R_90, the radius enclosing 90% of the r-band light. Metallicity profiles which decline steadily with radius are found primarily for galaxies in our sample with low stellar mass (Log(M_*)<10.2), concentration, and/or mean stellar mass density. Beyond ~R_90, however, around 10 percent of the galaxies in our sample exhibit a sharp dow…
In our previous work, we found that only two scenarios are capable of reproducing the observed integrated mass-metallicity relations for the gas and stellar components of local star-forming galaxies simultaneously. One scenario invokes a time-dependent metal outflow loading factor with stronger outflows at early times. The other scenario uses a time-dependent IMF slope with a steeper IMF at early times. In this work, we extend our study to investigate the radial profile of gas and stellar metallicity in local star-forming galaxies using spatially resolved spectroscopic data from the SDSS-IV Ma…
To understand the formation and evolution of galaxies, it is important to have a full comprehension of the role played by the metallicity, star formation rate (SFR), morphology, and color. The interplay of these parameters at different redshifts will substantially affect the evolution of galaxies and, as a consequence, the evolution of them will provide important clues and constraints on the galaxy evolution models. In this work we focus on the evolution of the SFR, metallicity of the gas, and morphology of galaxies at low redshift in search of signs of evolution. We use the S2N2 diagnostic di…
We use the combined photometric SDSS + GALEX database to look for populations of luminous blue star-forming galaxies. These were initially identified from such a sample at redshifts near 0.4, using SDSS spectra. We make use of the colour index previously defined to separate stars and QSOs, to locate more of these unusual galaxies, to fainter limits. They are found in significant numbers in two different regions of the related colour-magnitude plot. Within these regions, we use the ensemble 7-colour photometry to estimate the populations of blue star-forming galaxies at redshift near 0.4, and a…
We present the rest-frame optical spectrum of a strongly lensed galaxy at redshift z =1.7 behind the cluster Abell 1689. We detect the temperature sensitive auroral line [O III] 4363, which allows the first direct metallicity measurement for galaxies at z > 1. Our high signal-to-noise spectrum indicates that the target is an extremely low metallicity star-forming galaxy.We estimate an intrinsic absolute B band magnitude of M_{B}=-18.3 \pm 0.1$, with a stellar mass of 4.4$\pm1.2\times10^{8}$ M$_{\odot}$. This galaxy extends the luminosity-metallicity relation of star-forming galaxies at z > 2 b…
We present a comprehensive observational study of the gas phase metallicity of star-forming galaxies from z ~ 0 -> 3. We combine our new sample of gravitationally lensed galaxies with existing lensed and non-lensed samples to conduct a large investigation into the mass-metallicity (MZ) relation at z > 1. We apply a self-consistent metallicity calibration scheme to investigate the metallicity evolution of star-forming galaxies as a function of redshift. The lensing magnification ensures that our sample spans an unprecedented range of stellar mass (3*10^{7}-6*10^{10} M_sun). We find that at the …
Using the LOWZ and CMASS samples of the ninth data release (DR9) from the SDSS-III Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS), I investigate properties of star forming galaxies and AGNs. The CMASS sample seriously suffers from the radial selection effect, even within the redshift 0.44<z<0.6, which will lead to statistical conclusions in the CMASS sample being less likely robust. In the LOWZ sample, the fraction of star-forming galaxies is nearly constant from the lowest density regime to the densest regime; the AGN fraction is also insensitive to the local environment. In addition, I note …
(abridged) We present 8.2m VLT spectroscopic observations of 28 HII regions in 16 emission-line galaxies and 3.6m ESO telescope spectroscopic observations of 38 HII regions in 28 emission-line galaxies. These emission-line galaxies were selected mainly from the Data Release 6 (DR6) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) as metal-deficient galaxy candidates. We collect photometric and high-quality spectroscopic data for a large uniform sample of star forming galaxies including new observations. Our aim is to study the luminosity-metallicity (L-Z) relation for nearby galaxies, especially at its …
We calculate the stellar mass-metallicity relation at five epochs ranging to z~2.3. We quantify evolution in the shape of the mass-metallicity relation as a function of redshift; the mass-metallicity relation flattens at late times. There is an empirical upper limit to the gas-phase oxygen abundance in star-forming galaxies that is independent of redshift. From examination of the mass-metallicity relation and its observed scatter we show that the flattening at late times is a consequence of evolution in the stellar mass where galaxies enrich to this empirical upper metallicity limit; there is …
Star formation rate (SFR), metallicity and stellar mass are within the important parameters of star--forming galaxies that characterize their formation and evolution. They are known to be related to each other at low and high redshift in the mass--metallicity, mass--SFR, and metallicity--SFR relations. In this work we demonstrate the existence of a plane in the 3D space defined by the axes SFR [log(SFR)(M_sun yr^-1)], gas metallicity [12+log(O/H)], and stellar mass [log(M_star/M_sun)] of star-forming galaxies. We used star--forming galaxies from the "main galaxy sample" of the Sloan Digital Sk…
We analyze high signal-to-noise spectrophotometric observations acquired simultaneously with TWIN, a double-arm spectrograph, from 3400 to 10400 Åof three star-forming regions in the HII galaxy SDSS J165712.75+321141.4. We have measured four line temperatures: Te([OIII]), Te([SIII]), Te([OII]), and Te([SII]), with high precision, rms errors of order 2%, 5%, 6% and 6%, respectively, for the brightest region, and slightly worse for the other two. The temperature measurements allowed the direct derivation of ionic abundances of oxygen, sulphur, nitrogen, neon and argon. We have computed CLOUDY ta…
The stellar metallicity is a direct measure of the amount of metals present in a galaxy, as a large part of the metals lie in its stars. In this paper we investigate new stellar metallicity indicators suitable for high-z galaxies studying the stellar photospheric absorption lines in the rest frame ultraviolet, hence sampling predominantly young hot stars. We defined these new indicators based on the equivalent widths (EW) of selected features using theoretical spectra created with the evolutionary population synthesis code Starburts99. We used them to compute the stellar metallicity for a samp…
Within the standard model of hierarchical galaxy formation in a ΛCDM Universe, the environment of galaxies is expected to play a key role in driving galaxy formation and evolution. In this paper we investigate whether and how the gas metallicity and the star formation surface density (Σ_SFR) depend on galaxy environment. To this end we analyse a sample of 1162 local, star-forming galaxies from the galaxy survey Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA). Generally, both parameters do not show any significant dependence on environment. However, in agreement with previous studies, we find that low-m…
We present a recalibration of the luminosity-metallicity relation for gas-rich, star-forming dwarfs to magnitudes as faint as M$_R$ ~ -13. We use the Dopita et al. (2013) metallicity calibrations to calibrate the relation for all of the data in this analysis. In metallicity-luminosity space we find two sub-populations within a sample of high-confidence SDSS DR8 star-forming galaxies; 52% are metal-rich giants and 48% are metal-medium galaxies. Metal-rich dwarfs classified as tidal dwarf galaxy (TDG) candidates in the literature are typically of metallicity 12 + log(O/H) = 8.70 $\pm$ 0.05, whil…
We use the SDSS-Gaia Catalogue to identify six new pieces of halo substructure. SDSS-Gaia is an astrometric catalogue that exploits SDSS data release 9 to provide first epoch photometry for objects in the Gaia source catalogue. We use a version of the catalogue containing $245\,316$ stars with all phase space coordinates within a heliocentric distance of $\sim 10$ kpc. We devise a method to assess the significance of halo substructures based on their clustering in velocity space. The two most substantial structures are multiple wraps of a stream which has undergone considerable phase mixing (S…
To further our knowledge of the complex physical process of galaxy formation, it is essential that we characterize the formation and evolution of large databases of galaxies. The spectral synthesis STARLIGHT code of Cid Fernandes et al. (2004) was designed for this purpose. Results of STARLIGHT are highly dependent on the choice of input basis of simple stellar population (SSP) spectra. Speed of the code, which uses random walks through the parameter space, scales as the square of the number of basis spectra, making it computationally necessary to choose a small number of SSPs that are coarsel…
We measure the oxygen metallicity of the ionized gas along the major axis of seven dwarf star-forming galaxies. Two of them, SDSSJ1647+21 and SDSSJ2238+14, show 0.5 dex metallicity decrements in inner regions with enhanced star-formation activity. This behavior is similar to the metallicity drop observed in a number of local tadpole galaxies by Sanchez Almeida et al. (2013) and interpreted as showing early stages of assembling in disk galaxies, with the star formation sustained by external metal-poor gas accretion. The agreement with tadpoles has several implications: (1) it proves that galaxi…
The abundance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in low- and high-metallicity galaxies has been widely discussed since the time when detailed infrared data for extragalactic objects were first obtained. On the scales of entire galaxies, a smaller PAH abundance in lower-metallicity galaxies is often observed. We study this relationship for star-forming regions in nearby galaxies, for a sample containing more than 200 HII complexes, using spatially-resolved observations from the Herschel Space Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope. We use a model for the dust emission to estimate the p…
Star-forming galaxies display a close relation among stellar mass, metallicity and star-formation rate (or molecular-gas mass). This is known as the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR) (or molecular-gas FMR), and it has a profound implication on models of galaxy evolution. However, there still remains a significant residual scatter around the FMR. We show here that a fourth parameter, the surface density of stellar mass, reduces the dispersion around the molecular-gas FMR. In a principal component analysis of 29 physical parameters of 41,338 star-forming galaxies, the surface density of ste…
We investigate the mass-metallicity relations for the gaseous (MZRgas) and stellar components (MZRstar) of local star-forming galaxies based on a representative sample from SDSS DR12. The mass-weighted average stellar metallicities are systematically lower than the gas metallicities. This difference in metallicity increases toward galaxies with lower masses and reaches 0.4-0.8 dex at 10^9 Msun (depending on the gas metallicity calibration). As a result, the MZRstar is much steeper than the MZRgas. The much lower metallicities in stars compared to the gas in low mass galaxies implies dramatic m…
Simulations indicate that the inflow of gas of star-forming galaxies is almost co-planar and co-rotating with the gas disk, and that the outflow of gas driven by stellar winds and/or supernova explosions is preferentially perpendicular to the disk. This indicates that the galactic gas disk can be treated as a modified accretion disk. In this work, we focus on the metal enhancement in galactic disks in this scenario of gas accretion. Assuming that the star formation rate surface density ($Σ_{\rm SFR}$) is of exponential form, we obtain the analytic solution of gas-phase metallicity with only th…
We focus on an analysis of galaxies of high stellar mass and low metallicity. We cross-correlated the Millenium Galaxy Catalogue (MGC) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) galaxy catalogue to provide a sample of MGC objects with high resolution imaging and both spectroscopic and photometric information available in the SDSS database. For each galaxy in our sample, we conducted a systematic morphological analysis by visual inspection of MGC images using their luminosity contours. The galaxies are classified as either disturbed or undisturbed objects. We divide the sample into three metallici…
We investigate the properties of star formation-driven outflows by using a large spectroscopic sample of ~160,000 local "normal" star forming galaxies, drawn from the SDSS, spanning a wide range of star formation rates and stellar masses. The galaxy sample is divided into a fine grid of bins in the M_*-SFR parameter space, for each of which we produce a composite spectrum by stacking together the SDSS spectra of the galaxies contained in that bin. We exploit the high signal-to-noise of the stacked spectra to study the emergence of faint features of optical emission lines that may trace galacti…
