The ionisation parameter of star-forming galaxies evolves with the specific star formation rate

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that the ionisation parameter in star-forming galaxies increases with specific star formation rate and evolves over cosmic time, independent of metallicity effects, based on high- and low-redshift galaxy samples.

Contribution

It provides evidence that the evolution of the ionisation parameter is primarily driven by changes in specific star formation rate, not metallicity, across different redshifts.

Findings

Ionisation parameter increases with sSFR.

Evolution of ionisation parameter is independent of metallicity.

High ionisation parameters are linked to high sSFRs.

Abstract

We investigate the evolution of the ionisation parameter of star-forming galaxies using a high-redshift ($z\sim 1.5$) sample from the FMOS-COSMOS survey and matched low-redshift samples from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. By constructing samples of low-redshift galaxies for which the stellar mass ($\mathrm{M}_{*}$), star formation rate (SFR) and specific star formation rate (sSFR) are matched to the high-redshift sample we remove the effects of an evolution in these properties. We also account for the effect of metallicity by jointly constraining the metallicity and ionisation parameter of each sample. We find an evolution in the ionisation parameter for main-sequence, star-forming galaxies and show that this evolution is driven by the evolution of sSFR. By analysing the matched samples as well as a larger sample of $z<0.3$, star-forming galaxies we show that high ionisation parameters are directly linked to high sSFRs and are not simply the byproduct of an evolution in metallicity. Our results are physically consistent with the definition of the ionisation parameter, a measure of the hydrogen ionising photon flux relative to the number density of hydrogen atoms.