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        A relationship between specific star formation rate and metallicity gradient within z ~ 1 galaxies from KMOS-HiZELS

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        Author
        Stott, John P.
        Sobral, David
        Swinbank, A. M.
        Smail, Ian
        Bower, Richard
        Best, Philip N.
        Sharples, Ray M.
        Geach, James E.
        Matthee, Jorryt
        Attention
        2299/19423
        Abstract
        We have observed a sample of typical z ~ 1 star-forming galaxies, selected from the HiZELS survey, with the new K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph (KMOS) near-infrared, multi-integral field unit instrument on the Very Large Telescope (VLT), in order to obtain their dynamics and metallicity gradients. The majority of our galaxies have a metallicity gradient consistent with being flat or negative (i.e. higher metallicity cores than outskirts). Intriguingly, we find a trend between metallicity gradient and specific star formation rate (sSFR), such that galaxies with a high sSFR tend to have relatively metal poor centres, a result which is strengthened when combined with data sets from the literature. This result appears to explain the discrepancies reported between different high-redshift studies and varying claims for evolution. From a galaxy evolution perspective, the trend we see would mean that a galaxy's sSFR is governed by the amount of metal-poor gas that can be funnelled into its core, triggered either by merging or through efficient accretion. In fact, merging may play a significant role as it is the starburst galaxies at all epochs, which have the more positive metallicity gradients. Our results may help to explain the origin of the fundamental metallicity relation, in which galaxies at a fixed mass are observed to have lower metallicities at higher star formation rates, especially if the metallicity is measured in an aperture encompassing only the central regions of the galaxy. Finally, we note that this study demonstrates the power of KMOS as an efficient instrument for large-scale resolved galaxy surveys.
        Publication date
        2014-09-21
        Published in
        Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
        Published version
        https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu1343
        Other links
        http://hdl.handle.net/2299/19423
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