The mass-metallicity relation at z 1.4 revealed with Subaru/FMOS
We present a stellar mass-metallicity relation at z ~ 1.4 with an unprecedentedly large sample of ~340 star-forming galaxies obtained with FibreMulti-Object Spectrograph (FMOS) on the Subaru Telescope. We observed K-band selected galaxies at 1.2 ≤ zph ≤ 1.6 in the Subaru XMM-Newton Deep Survey/Ultra Deep Survey fields with M*> 109.5M⊙, and expected F(Hα) > 5 × 10-17 erg s-1 cm-2. Among the observed ~1200 targets, 343 objects show significant Ha emission lines. The gas-phase metallicity is obtained from [N II] λ6584/Hα line ratio, after excluding possible active galactic nuclei. Due to the faintness of the [N II] λ6584 lines, we apply the stacking analysis and derive the mass-metallicity relation at z ~ 1.4. Our results are compared to past results at different redshifts in the literature. The mass-metallicity relation at z ~ 1.4 is located between those at z ~ 0.8 and z ~ 2.2; it is found that the metallicity increases with decreasing redshift from z ~ 3 to z ~ 0 at fixed stellar mass. Thanks to the large size of the sample, we can study the dependence of the mass-metallicity relation on various galaxy physical properties. The average metallicity from the stacked spectra is close to the local Fundamental Metallicity Relation (FMR) in the higher metallicity part but >0.1 dex higher in metallicity than the FMR in the lower metallicity part.We find that galaxies with larger E(B -V), B -R and R -H colours tend to show higher metallicity by ~0.05 dex at fixed stellar mass. We also find relatively clearer size dependence that objects with smaller half-light radius tend to show higher metallicity by ~0.1 dex at fixed stellar mass, especially in the low-mass part.
| Item Type | Article | 
|---|---|
| Identification Number | 10.1093/mnras/stt2185 | 
| Keywords | abundances-galaxies, evolution-galaxies, galaxies, high-redshift, space and planetary science, astronomy and astrophysics | 
| Date Deposited | 15 May 2025 12:48 | 
| Last Modified | 22 Oct 2025 19:23 | 
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