Chemical Evolution of High-Redshift Radio Galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates the chemical evolution of high-redshift radio galaxies by analyzing ultraviolet spectra to determine metallicity, finding no significant evolution up to z ~ 4, and suggesting early chemical maturity of massive galaxies.

Contribution

The paper provides new spectroscopic data and photoionization models to assess NLR metallicity evolution in HzRGs, challenging previous assumptions about metallicity indicators.

Findings

No significant metallicity evolution observed up to z ~ 4

High NV/HeII ratios indicate high ionization, not metallicity

Massive galaxies likely completed chemical evolution by z > 5

Abstract

We present new deep optical spectra of 9 high-z radio galaxies (HzRGs) at z > 2.7 obtained with FORS2 on VLT. These rest-frame ultraviolet spectra are used to infer the metallicity of the narrow-line regions (NLRs) in order to investigate the chemical evolution of galaxies in high-z universe. We focus mainly on the CIV/HeII and CIII]/CIV flux ratios that are sensitive to gas metallicity and ionization parameter. Although the NV emission has been widely used to infer the gas metallicity, it is often too weak to be measured accurately for NLRs. By combining our new spectra with data from the literature, we examine the possible redshift evolution of the NLR metallicity for 57 HzRGs at 1 < z < 4. Based on the comparison between the observed emission-line flux ratios and the results of our photoionization model calculations, we find no significant metallicity evolution in NLRs of HzRGs, up to z ~ 4. Our results imply that massive galaxies had almost completed their chemical evolution at much higher redshift (z > 5). Finally, although we detect strong NV emission lines in 5 HzRGs at z > 2.7, we point out that high NV/HeII ratios are not indicative of high metallicities but correspond to high ionization parameters of gas clouds in NLRs.