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arXiv · 2206.02824

EMPRESS. V. Metallicity Diagnostics of Galaxies over 12+log(O/H)=~6.9-8.9 Established by a Local Galaxy Census: Preparing for JWST Spectroscopy

Kimihiko Nakajima·Masami Ouchi·Yi Xu·Michael Rauch·Yuichi Harikane·Moka Nishigaki·Yuki Isobe·Haruka Kusakabe·Tohru Nagao·Yoshiaki Ono·Masato Onodera·Yuma Sugahara·Ji Hoon Kim·Yutaka Komiyama·Chien-Hsiu Lee·Fakhri S. Zahedy
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Abstract

We present optical-line gas metallicity diagnostics established by the combination of local SDSS galaxies and the largest compilation of extremely metal-poor galaxies (EMPGs) including new EMPGs identified by the Subaru EMPRESS survey. A total of 103 EMPGs are included that cover a large parameter space of magnitude (Mi=-19 to -7) and H-beta equivalent width (10-600 Ang), i.e., wide ranges of stellar mass and star-formation rate. Using reliable metallicity measurements of the direct method for these galaxies, we derive the relationships between strong optical-line ratios and gas-phase metallicity over the range of 12+log(O/H)=~6.9-8.9 corresponding to 0.02-2 solar metallicity Zsun. We confirm that R23-index, ([OIII]+[OII])/H-beta, is the most accurate metallicity indicator with the metallicity uncertainty of 0.14 dex over the range among various popular metallicity indicators. The other metallicity indicators show large scatters in the metal-poor range (<0.1 Zsun). It is explained by our CLOUDY photoionization modeling that, unlike R23-index, the other metallicity indicators do not use a sum of singly and doubly ionized lines and cannot trace both low and high ionization gas. We find that the accuracy of the metallicity indicators is significantly improved, if one uses H-beta equivalent width measurements that tightly correlate with ionization states. In this work, we also present the relation of physical properties with UV-continuum slope beta and ionization production rate xi_ion derived with GALEX data for the EMPGs, and provide local anchors of galaxy properties together with the optical-line metallicity indicators that are available in the form of ASCII table and useful for forthcoming JWST spectroscopic studies.

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Kimihiko Nakajima, Masami Ouchi, Yi Xu, Michael Rauch, Yuichi Harikane, Moka Nishigaki, Yuki Isobe, Haruka Kusakabe, Tohru Nagao, Yoshiaki Ono, Masato Onodera, Yuma Sugahara, Ji Hoon Kim, Yutaka Komiyama, Chien-Hsiu Lee, Fakhri S. Zahedy. 2022-06-06. EMPRESS. V. Metallicity Diagnostics of Galaxies over 12+log(O/H)=~6.9-8.9 Established by a Local Galaxy Census: Preparing for JWST Spectroscopy. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4365/ac7710

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