2001/08/15 by C. Marcella Carollo, C. M. Carollo, Carollo, C. Marcella +5
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #X-ray Diffraction in Crystallography #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0108256
6 pages, 3 figures, to appear in "Chemical Enrichment of Intracluster and Intergalactic Medium", Vulcano, Italy, 14-18 May 2001, ASP Conference Series
arxiv created 2001/08/15 · openalex publication_date 2001/08/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2024/04/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We are undertaking a program to measure emission line ratios in a selected sample of 0.5 < z < 1.0 CFRS starforming galaxies in order to compute their Interstellar Medium metallicities. The latter are derived by means of the empirically-calibrated R23 estimator introduced by Pagel et al. (1979). Here we focus on a subsample of 15 galaxies with LHβ > 1.2 × 1041 erg s-1. In addition to the optical CFHT spectra discussed in Carollo & Lilly (2001), where a preliminary account of this work can be found, in this paper we also refer to new J-band Keck spectroscopy of the Hα and [NII]6583 lines for several objects. These lines allow us to break the degeneracy between low (\lta 0.1Z_\odot) and high (\gta 0.5Z_\odot) metallicity of the R23 estimator, and put on solid ground the finding that the 0.5 < z < 1.0 blue galaxies in the high-LHβ sample are significantly metal-enriched (Z \gta 0.3Z_\odot up to Z_\odot). Therefore, our results do not support previous suggestions in which the 0.5 < z < 1.0 starforming galaxies are dwarf galaxies brightened by large bursts of star-formation, but support instead a picture where at least a significant fraction of them evolves to become today's massive metal-rich systems.