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| ID:
421481.0,
MPI für Astronomie / Publikationen_mpia |
| IMAGES IV: strong evolution of the oxygen abundance in gaseous phases of intermediate mass galaxies from z ~ 0.8 |
| Authors: | Rodrigues, M.; Hammer, F.; Flores, H.; Puech, M.; Liang, Y. C.; Fuentes-Carrera, I.; Nesvadba, N.; Lehnert, M.; Yang, Y.; Amram, P.; Balkowski, C.; Cesarsky, C.; Dannerbauer, H.; Delgado, R.; Guiderdoni, B.; Kembhavi, A.; Neichel, B.; Östlin, G.; Pozzetti, L.; Ravikumar, C. D.; Rawat, A.; di Serego Alighieri, S.; Vergani, D.; Vernet, J.; Wozniak, H. | | Language: | English | | Date of Publication (YYYY-MM-DD): | 2008 | | Title of Journal: | Astronomy and Astrophysics | | Volume: | 492 | | Start Page: | 371 | | End Page: | 388 | | Review Status: | Peer-review | | Audience: | Experts Only | | Abstract / Description: | Context: Intermediate mass galaxies (> 1010 M_o) at z ~ 0.6 are the likeliest progenitors of the present-day, numerous population of spirals. There is growing evidence that they have evolved rapidly in the last 6 to 8 Gyr, and likely already have formed a significant fraction of their stellar mass, often showing perturbed morphologies and kinematics. Aims: We have gathered a representative sample of 88 such galaxies and have provided robust estimates of their gas phase metallicity. Methods: We used moderate spectral resolution spectroscopy at VLT/FORS2 with an unprecedentedly high S/N allowing us to remove biases coming from interstellar absorption lines and extinction, to establish robust values of R23 = ([OII]lambda3727 + [OIII]lambdalambda4959, 5007)/Hbeta. Results: We definitively confirm that the predominant population of z ~ 0.6 starbursts and luminous IR galaxies (LIRGs) are on average two times less metal rich than the local galaxies at a given stellar mass. We do find that the metal abundance of the gaseous phase of galaxies evolves linearly with time, from z = 1 to z = 0 and after comparing with other studies, from z = 3 to z = 0. Combining our results with the reported evolution of the Tully Fisher relation, we find that such an evolution requires that ~30% of the stellar mass of local galaxies have been formed through an external supply of gas, thus excluding the closed box model. Distant starbursts & LIRGs have properties (metal abundance, star formation efficiency & morphologies) similar to those of local LIRGs. Their underlying physics is likely dominated by gas infall, probably through merging or interactions. Conclusions: Our study further supports the rapid evolution of z ~ 0.4-1 galaxies. Gas exchange between galaxies is likely the main cause of this evolution. Intermediate MAss Galaxy Evolution Sequence, ESO programs 174.B-0328(B), 174.B-0328(F), 174.B-0328(K), 66.A-0599(A). | | Free Keywords: | galaxies: evolution; galaxies: ISM; galaxies: spiral; galaxies: starburst; infrared: galaxies | | External Publication Status: | published | | Document Type: | Article |
| Communicated by: | N. N. | | Affiliations: | MPI für Astronomie
| | Identifiers: | URL:http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008A%26A...492..371... [ID No:1] | |
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