[O III] emission line as a tracer of star-forming galaxies at high redshifts: comparison between Hα and [O III] emitters at z=2.23 in HiZELS

Suzuki, T.L.; Kodama, T.; Sobral, D.; Khostovan, A.A.; Hayashi, M.; Shimakawa, R.; Koyama, Y.; Tadaki, K.-i; Tanaka, I.; Minowa, Y.; Yamamoto, M.; Smail, I.; Best, P.N.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stw1655

[O III] emission line as a tracer of star-forming galaxies at high redshifts: comparison between Hα and [O III] emitters at z=2.23 in HiZELS

Suzuki, T.L.; Kodama, T.; Sobral, D.; Khostovan, A.A.; Hayashi, M.; Shimakawa, R.; Koyama, Y.; Tadaki, K.-i; Tanaka, I.; Minowa, Y.; Yamamoto, M.; Smail, I.; Best, P.N.

Authors

T.L. Suzuki

T. Kodama

D. Sobral

A.A. Khostovan

M. Hayashi

R. Shimakawa

Y. Koyama

K.-i Tadaki

I. Tanaka

Y. Minowa

M. Yamamoto

Professor Ian Smail ian.smail@durham.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor

P.N. Best

Abstract

We investigate the properties of z = 2.23 Hα and [O III] λ5007 emitters using the narrow-band-selected samples obtained from the High-z Emission Line Survey. We construct two samples of the Hα and [O III] emitters and compare their integrated physical properties. We find that the distribution of stellar masses, dust extinction, star formation rates (SFRs), and specific SFRs (sSFRs) is not statistically different between the two samples. When we separate the full galaxy sample into three subsamples according to the detections of the Hα and/or [O III] emission lines, most of the sources detected with both Hα and [O III] show log(sSFRUV) ≳ −9.5. The comparison of the three subsamples suggests that sources with strong [O III] line emission tend to have the highest star-forming activity out all galaxies that we study. We argue that the [O III] emission line can be used as a tracer of star-forming galaxies at high redshift, and that it is especially useful to investigate star-forming galaxies at z > 3, for which Hα emission is no longer observable from the ground.

Citation

Suzuki, T., Kodama, T., Sobral, D., Khostovan, A., Hayashi, M., Shimakawa, R., …Best, P. (2016). [O III] emission line as a tracer of star-forming galaxies at high redshifts: comparison between Hα and [O III] emitters at z=2.23 in HiZELS. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 462(1), 181-189. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw1655

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 7, 2016
Online Publication Date	Jul 11, 2016
Publication Date	Oct 11, 2016
Deposit Date	Nov 7, 2016
Publicly Available Date	Nov 10, 2016
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN	0035-8711
Electronic ISSN	1365-2966
Publisher	Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	462
Issue	1
Pages	181-189
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw1655

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This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2016 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.