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arXiv 1507.07932astro-ph.GAastro-ph.CO
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在过去的50亿年里,恒星形成星系中电离光子的增加

A rise in the ionizing photons in star-forming galaxies over the past 5 billion years

Lisa J. Kewley, H. Jabran Zahid, Margaret J. Geller, Michael A. Dopita, Ho Seong Hwang, Dan Fabricant

摘要:

利用SHELS星系红移巡天的F2场研究了0.2<z<0.6星系中电离光子的变化。我们首次发现,当[OIII]/Hb和[OIII]/[OII]比值上升时,[NII]/H-alpha和[SII]/H-alpha比值在0.2<z<0.35的红移范围内显著下降,恒星质量在9.2<log(M/Msun)<10.6之间。对于9.8<log(M/Msun)<10.0之间的恒星质量,[OIII]/H-beta和[OIII]/[OII]比在整个0.2<z<0.6红移范围内继续上升。我们最终排除了活动星系核污染、ISM压力的变化以及EUV辐射场硬度的变化是导致0.2<z<0.35之间谱线比变化的原因。我们发现,电离参数上升显着的红移(由0.1至0.25德克斯取决于恒星质量的样品)。我们发现,电离参数是强烈相关的分数的100-老恒星,跟踪的H-β等效宽度。我们讨论了这一结果对更高的红移研究的影响,我们认为在高红移使用标准的光学金属丰度诊断的影响。

英文摘要:

We investigate the change in ionizing photons in galaxies between 0.2<z<0.6 using the F2 field of the SHELS complete galaxy redshift survey. We show, for the first time, that while the [OIII]/Hb and [OIII]/[OII] ratios rise, the [NII]/H-alpha and [SII]/H-alpha ratios fall significantly over the 0.2<z<0.35 redshift range for stellar masses between 9.2<log(M/Msun)<10.6. The [OIII]/H-beta and [OIII]/[OII] ratios continue to rise across the full 0.2<z<0.6 redshift range for stellar masses between 9.8<log(M/Msun)<10.0. We conclusively rule out AGN contamination, a changing ISM pressure, and a change in the hardness of the EUV radiation field as the cause of the change in the line ratios between 0.2<z<0.35. We find that the ionization parameter rises significantly with redshift (by 0.1 to 0.25 dex depending on the stellar mass of the sample). We show that the ionization parameter is strongly correlated with the fraction of young-to-old stars, as traced by the H-beta equivalent width. We discuss the implications of this result on higher redshift studies, and we consider the implications on the use of standard optical metallicity diagnostics at high redshift.

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