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The KLEVER survey: nitrogen abundances at z ~ 2 and probing the existence of a fundamental nitrogen relation

Journal Article · · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [4];  [7];  [8];  [4];  [9];  [10];  [11];  [12];  [13];  [14]
  1. Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Cavendish Lab. and Kavli Institute for Cosmology
  2. Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Cavendish Lab. and Kavli Institute for Cosmology; Univ. College London (United Kingdom)
  3. European Southern Observatory, Garching (Germany)
  4. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Firenze (Italy). Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri
  5. Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom)
  6. Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom). Cavendish Lab. and Kavli Institute for Cosmology; European Southern Observatory, Garching (Germany); Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Firenze (Italy). Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri; Univ. of Florence (Italy)
  7. Univ. of Edinburgh, Scotland (United Kingdom). The Royal Observatory
  8. University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield (United Kingdom)
  9. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Firenze (Italy). Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri; Univ. of Florence (Italy)
  10. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Bologna (Italy). Osservatorio di Astrofisico e Scienza dello Spazio di Bologna
  11. Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Napoli (Italy). Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte
  12. Peking Univ., Beijing (China)
  13. Durham Univ. (United Kingdom)
  14. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States); University of Hull, Kingston upon Hull (United Kingdom)
+ Show Author Affiliations
Here we present a comparison of the nitrogen-to-oxygen ratio (N/O) in 37 high-redshift galaxies at z ~ 2 taken from the KMOS Lensed Emission Lines and VElocity Review (KLEVER) Survey with a comparison sample of local galaxies, taken from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The KLEVER sample shows only a mild enrichment in N/O of +0.1 dex when compared to local galaxies at a given gas-phase metallicity (O/H), but shows a depletion in N/O of –0.35 dex when compared at a fixed stellar mass (M*). We find a strong anticorrelation in local galaxies between N/O and SFR in the M*–N/O plane, similar to the anticorrelation between O/H and SFR found in the mass–metallicity relation (MZR). We use this anticorrelation to construct a fundamental nitrogen relation (FNR), analogous to the fundamental metallicity relation (FMR). We find that KLEVER galaxies are consistent with both the FMR and the FNR. This suggests that the depletion of N/O in high-z galaxies when considered at a fixed M* is driven by the redshift evolution of the mass–metallicity relation in combination with a near redshift-invariant N/O–O/H relation. Furthermore, the existence of an fundamental nitrogen relation suggests that the mechanisms governing the fundamental metallicity relation must be probed by not only O/H, but also N/O, suggesting pure-pristine gas inflows are not the primary driver of the FMR, and other properties such as variations in galaxy age and star formation efficiency must be important.
Research Organization:
US Department of Energy (USDOE), Washington, DC (United States). Office of Science, Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS)
Sponsoring Organization:
European Research Council (ERC); National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA); National Science Foundation of China (NSFC); Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC); USDOE
OSTI ID:
1982685
Journal Information:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 512; ISSN 0035-8711
Publisher:
Oxford University PressCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
Abundances
Astronomy
Astrophysics
Evolution
Galaxies
High-redshift