New Light on the Search for Low-Metallicity Galaxies
By G. Denicoló, R. Terlevich, Elena Terlevich IoA, Cambridge, UK., Inaoe, Puebla, Mexico.. 2001
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We present a simple metallicity estimator based on the logarithmic [N ii] λ6584/Hα ratio, hereafter N2, which we envisage will become very useful for ranking galaxies in a metallicity sequence from redshift survey-quality data even for moderately low spectral resolution. We have calibrated the N2 estimator using a compilation of H ii galaxies having accurate oxygen abundances, plus photoionization models covering a wide range of abundances. The comparison of models and observations indicates that both primary and secondary nitrogen are important for the relevant range of metallicities. The N2 estimator follows a linear relation with log(O/H) that holds for the whole abundance range covered by the sample, from approximately 1/50th to twice the Solar value [7.2<12+log(O/H)<9.1]. We suggest that the ([S ii] λλ6717,6731/Hα) ratio (hereafter S2) can also be used as a rough metallicity indicator. Because of its large scatter the S2 estimator will be useful only in systems with very low metallicity, where [N ii] λ6584 is not detected or in low-resolution spectra where [N ii] λ6584 is blended with Hα.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ac48e6780a0139a6242cda1e3f276aa6fd1251b9
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In Astronomy and Astrophysics
Citations in the corpus
- Nearby Supernova Factory Observations of SN 2005gj: Another Type Ia Supernova in a Massive Circumstellar Envelope (2006, background): “Another striking feature of the host spectrum is the absence of [N ii] k6584; this is an indicator that the host galaxy metallicity is low (Denicoló et al. 2002).”
- Abundances of Metal-rich H II Regions in M51 (2004, background): “As an example, Pettini & Pagel (2004) have considered an empirical abundance calibration of two line indices involving the nitrogen lines: [N II ]λ6583 / Hα (see also Denicoló et al. 2002), and ([O III ]λ5007/Hβ) / ([N II ]λ6583/Hα).”
- Evidence for Solar Metallicities in Massive Star-forming Galaxies at z ≳ 2 (2004, methodology): “For comparison with other recent work, we also list the (O/H) abundances implied by the relation presented in Denicoló et al. (2002) 12þ log (O=H) ¼ 9:12þ 0:73N2; ð2Þ which are systematically higher than those computed from the Pettini & Pagel (2004) relation.”
- SDSS-IV MaNGA : the impact of diffuse ionized gas on emission-line ratios, interpretation of diagnostic diagrams and gas metallicity measurements (2016, methodology): “=(([O iii]/Hβ)/([N ii]/Hα)) (e.g., Alloin et al. 1979; Zaritsky et al. 1994; Pilyugin, 2001; Denicoló et al. 2002; Pettini & Pagel, 2004; Pilyugin & Thuan, 2005) and N2O2=([N ii]/[O ii]) (Dopita et al. 2000; Kewley et al. 2001), N2S2Hα=8.77+log [N ii]/[S ii] + 0.264 × log[N ii]/Hα (Dopita et al.…”
- The Mass-Metallicity Relation at z≳2 (2006, methodology): “The use of N2 ≡ log [N II]λ6584/Hα as an abundance indicator was proposed by Storchi-Bergmann et al. (1994), and has been further discussed and refined by Raimann et al. (2000), Denicoló et al. (2002) and Pettini & Pagel (2004).”
- Metallicity Calibrations and the Mass-Metallicity Relation for Star-forming Galaxies (2008, methodology): “…include theoretical methods based on photoionization models (see e.g., Kewley & Dopita 2002, for a review), empirical methods based on measurements of the electron-temperature of the gas, (e.g., Pilyugin 2001; Pettini & Pagel 2004), or a combination of the two (e.g., Denicoló et al. 2002).”
- A fundamental plane for field star-forming galaxies (2010, methodology): “…metallicity are estimated for emission line galaxies, for example, using the Hα luminosity to estimate the SFR (e.g. Kennicutt 1998), and any of the metallicity methods in the literature, such as the R23 (Pagel et al. 1979) or N2 (Denicoló et al. 2002), see Kewley & Ellison (2008) for a review.”