J/ApJ/964/59 Gas-phase mass-metallicity relation for LEGA-C gal. (Lewis+, 2024)
The gas-phase mass-metallicity relation for massive galaxies at z∼0.7
with the LEGA-C survey.
Lewis Z.J., Andrews B.H., Bezanson R., Maseda M., Bell E.F., Dave R.,
D'Eugenio F., Franx M., Gallazzi A., de Graaff A., Kaushal Y.,
Nersesian A., Newman J.A., van der Wel A., Wu P.-F.
<Astrophys. J., 964, 59 (2024)>
=2024ApJ...964...59L 2024ApJ...964...59L
ADC_Keywords: Galaxies, spectra; Optical; Redshifts; Extinction; Abundances
Keywords: Galaxy abundances ; Metallicity ; Galaxy evolution
Abstract:
The massive end of the gas-phase mass-metallicity relation (MZR) is a
sensitive probe of active galactic nuclei (AGN) feedback that is a
crucial but highly uncertain component of galaxy evolution models. In
this paper, we extend the z∼0.7 MZR by ∼0.5dex up to
log(M*/M☉)∼11.1. We use extremely deep VLT VIMOS spectra from
the Large Early Galaxy Astrophysics Census (LEGA-C) survey to measure
metallicities for 145 galaxies. The LEGA-C MZR matches the
normalization of the z∼0.8 DEEP2 MZR where they overlap, so we combine
the two to create an MZR spanning from 9.3 to 11.1 log(M*/M☉).
The LEGA-C+DEEP2 MZR at z∼0.7 is offset to slightly lower
metallicities (0.05-0.13 dex) than the z∼0 MZR, but it otherwise
mirrors the established power-law rise at low/intermediate stellar
masses and asymptotic flattening at high stellar masses. We compare
the LEGA-C+DEEP2 MZR to the MZR from two cosmological simulations
(IllustrisTNG and SIMBA), which predict qualitatively different
metallicity trends for high-mass galaxies. This comparison highlights
that our extended MZR provides a crucial observational constraint for
galaxy evolution models in a mass regime where the MZR is very
sensitive to choices about the implementation of AGN feedback.
Description:
In this work, we take advantage of the ultra-deep spectra of a nearly
mass-complete sample at 0.6<z<1.0 obtained by the Large Early Galaxy
Astrophysics Census (LEGA-C; van der Wel+ 2016ApJS..223...29V 2016ApJS..223...29V;
Straatman+ 2018, J/ApJS/239/27) survey.
The LEGA-C survey used a K-band selection to target a nearly
mass-selected sample of 3741 high-mass (M*≳1010M☉) galaxies
with existing Ultra-VISTA photometry at z=0.6-1. The spectra were
obtained with 20hr of integration time each on the Very Large
Telescope (VLT) with the VIsible MultiObject Spectrograph (VIMOS) and
resulted in spectra over the wavelength range 5800-9500Å with an
average S/N of 20Å-1.
Throughout this paper, we assume the following cosmology:
H0=70km/s/Mpc, ΩM=0.3, and ΩΛ=0.7.
File Summary:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FileName Lrecl Records Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ReadMe 80 . This file
table1.dat 73 145 LEGA-C metallicities
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See also:
II/373 : The fourth UltraVISTA data release (DR4) (Moneti+, 2019)
J/ApJ/617/240 : Oxygen abundances in the GOODS-North field (Kobulnicky+, 2004)
J/MNRAS/404/1639 : MILES base models & new line index system (Vazdekis+, 2010)
J/A+A/544/A156 : UltraVISTA Catalogue Release DR1 (McCracken+, 2012)
J/ApJ/765/140 : Stacked spectra of SDSS star forming galaxies (Andrews+, 2013)
J/ApJ/777/18 : Stellar mass functions of galaxies to z=4 (Muzzin+, 2013)
J/ApJS/206/8 : COSMOS/UltraVISTA Ks-selected catalogs v4.1 (Muzzin+, 2013)
J/MNRAS/469/2121 : Mass-metallicity relations with CALIFA (Sanchez+ 2017)
J/ApJS/239/27 : LEGA-C DR2: galaxies in the COSMOS field (Straatman+, 2018)
J/MNRAS/484/3042 : The gas-phase mass-metallicity relation (Sanchez+, 2019)
J/ApJ/913/103 : SED modelling of LEGA-C & HST massive gal. (de Graaff+, 2021)
J/ApJ/923/11 : Stellar kinematics of LEGA-C galaxies (van Houdt+, 2021)
J/ApJ/927/164 : Stellar population properties from LEGA-C DR2 (Borghi+, 2022)
J/ApJ/928/126 : Dynamical masses of z∼0.8 gal. from LEGA-C (Straatman+, 2022)
J/ApJS/256/44 : LEGA-C DR3: spectra of 0.6<z<1 gal. (van der Wel+, 2021)
J/ApJ/936/9 : LEGA-C parameters for 877 galaxies (Van der Wel+, 2022)
J/ApJ/961/118 : Star formation histories of LEGA-C galaxies (Kaushal+, 2024)
J/A+A/708/A290 : LEGA-C stellar pop. scaling relations. II (Gallazzi+, 2026)
Byte-by-byte Description of file: table1.dat
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bytes Format Units Label Explanations
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1- 6 I6 --- [MMS2013] [6057/256256] Galaxy LEGA-C DR3 ID from
van der Wel+ 2021, J/ApJS/256/44
8- 10 I3 --- Mask [1/102] LEGA-C slit mask
12- 17 F6.4 --- z [0.59/0.84] Spectroscopic redshift
19- 23 F5.2 [Msun] logMs [9.8/11.1] Log of stellar mass
25- 28 F4.2 --- [OII]/Hb [0.6/4.5] Dereddened [OII]3727 flux
relative to Hβ
30- 33 F4.2 --- e_[OII]/Hb [0.02/0.8] Uncertainty in [OII]/Hb (1)
35- 38 F4.2 --- [OIII]/Hb [0.05/1.9] Dereddened [OIII]5007 flux
relative to Hβ
40- 43 F4.2 --- e_[OIII]/Hb [0.01/0.3] Uncertainty in [OIII]/Hb (1)
45- 48 F4.2 mag AV [0.06/3.7] Nebular extinction, AV
50- 53 F4.2 mag e_AV [0.04/1.01] Lower uncertainty on AV (1)
55- 58 F4.2 mag E_AV [0.09/1.1] Upper uncertainty on AV (1)
60- 63 F4.2 [-] Metal [8.49/9] Gas-phase metallicity, 12+log(O/H)
65- 68 F4.2 [-] e_Metal [0.02/0.07] Lower uncertainty on Metal (1)
70- 73 F4.2 [-] E_Metal [0.02/0.07] Upper uncertainty on Metal (1)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1): Inner 68 percentile highest probability density interval from
the MCMC posterior distribution.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
History:
From electronic version of the journal
License: CC-BY-4.0
(End) Prepared by [AAS], Emmanuelle Perret [CDS] 02-Jun-2026