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arXiv 1710.03315astro-ph.GA
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富气星系在z~5处的早期金属富集

Early metal enrichment of gas-rich galaxies at z~5

Suraj Poudel, Varsha P. Kulkarni, Sean Morrison, Céline Péroux, Debopam Som, Hadi Rahmani, Samuel Quiret

摘要:

利用甚大望远镜(VLT)和凯克望远镜观测了3个富气星系z~5处O、C、Si和Fe元素的丰度,以更好地限制富气星系早期的化学富集。这些星系在背景类星体的光谱中表现出强烈的莱曼-α吸收,中性氢柱密度log N ${_H{}_I}$(cm $^{-2}$)=20.10 $\pm$ 0.15,20.10 $\pm$ 0.15,20.80 $\pm$ 0.15。用未贫化的元素O,我们发现金属丰度[O/H]在-2.51到-2.05dex之间。我们的研究使z>4.5的未耗尽元素的测量样本增加了一倍。结合我们的测量和文献中的结果,我们发现z~5吸收体的N ${_H{}_I}$加权平均金属丰度与基于z<4.5 DLAs的预测一致。因此,我们没有发现如一些先前研究所报道的在z>4.7处金属丰度突然下降的显著证据。我们还使用挥发性元素O和难熔元素Si和/或Fe的组合来确定粉尘贫化的程度。一些吸收体显示出尘埃颗粒上元素贫化的证据,例如低[Si/O]或[Fe/O]。这些吸收体与文献中其它z~5吸收体的相对丰度显示出一些特殊性,例如在几个吸收体中[C/O]低,而在一个吸收体中[Si/O]高。最后,我们发现z~5吸收体的金属丰度与速度色散关系可能不同于低红移吸收体。

英文摘要:

We present abundance measurements of elements O, C, Si and Fe for three gas-rich galaxies at z~5 using observations from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Keck telescope in order to better constrain the early chemical enrichment of gas-rich galaxies. These galaxies show strong Lyman-α absorption in the spectra of background quasars, with neutral hydrogen column densities log N${_H{}_I}$(cm$^{-2}$)=20.10$\pm$0.15, 20.10$\pm$0.15, and 20.80$\pm$0.15. Using the undepleted element O, we find the metallicities [O/H] to be in the range of -2.51 to -2.05 dex. Our study has doubled the existing sample of measurements of undepleted elements at z>4.5. Combining our measurements with those from the literature, we find that the N${_H{}_I}$-weighted mean metallicity of z~5 absorbers is consistent with the prediction based on z<4.5 DLAs. Thus, we find no significant evidence of a sudden drop in metallicity at z>4.7 as reported by some prior studies. We also determine the extent of dust depletion using a combination of both the volatile element O and the refractory elements Si and/or Fe. Some of the absorbers show evidence of depletion of elements on dust grains, e.g. low [Si/O] or [Fe/O]. The relative abundances of these absorbers along with other z~5 absorbers from the literature show some peculiarities, e.g. low [C/O] in several absorbers and high [Si/O] in one absorber. Finally, we find that the metallicity vs. velocity dispersion relation of z~5 absorbers may be different from that of lower-redshift absorbers.

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