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On Measuring Chemical Abundances in Distant Galaxies Using Global Emission Line Spectra

Henry A. Kobulnicky·Robert C. Kennicutt Jr.·James L. Pizagno
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Abstract

The advent of 8--10 meter class telescopes enables direct measurement of the chemical properties in the ionized gas of cosmologically--distant galaxies with the same nebular analysis techniques used in local H II regions. We show that spatially unresolved (i.e., global) emission line spectra can reliably indicate the chemical properties of distant star-forming galaxies. However, standard nebular chemical abundance measurement methods (those with a measured electron temperature from [O III] lambda4363) may be subject to small systematic errors when the observed volume includes a mixture of gas with diverse temperatures, ionization parameters, and metallicities. To characterize these systematic effects, we compare physical conditions derived from spectroscopy of individual H II regions with results from global galaxy spectroscopy. We consider both low-mass, metal poor galaxies with uniform abundances and larger galaxies with internal chemical gradients. Well-established empirical calibrations using strong-line ratios can serve as reliable (~0.2 dex) indicators of the overall systemic oxygen abundance even when the signal-to-noise of the Hbeta and [O III] emission lines is as low as 8:1. We present prescriptions, directed toward high-redshift observers, for using global emission line spectra to trace the chemical properties of star-forming galaxies in the distant universe. [abridged]

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Henry A. Kobulnicky, Robert C. Kennicutt Jr., James L. Pizagno. 1998-11-01. On Measuring Chemical Abundances in Distant Galaxies Using Global Emission Line Spectra. https://doi.org/10.1086/306987

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