Weak Evolution of the Mass-metallicity Relation at Cosmic Dawn in the FirstLight Simulations

TL;DR

This study uses the FirstLight simulations to analyze the mass-metallicity relation in early galaxies at redshifts 5-8, finding weak evolution and discussing observational diagnostics for upcoming JWST campaigns.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed predictions of the mass-metallicity relation at cosmic dawn using cosmological simulations and evaluates the effectiveness of the R3 diagnostic at these redshifts.

Findings

Metallicity declines by less than 0.2 dex from z=5 to 8.

R3 diagnostic saturates at high metallicities, limiting its usefulness.

JWST can detect the mass-metallicity trend for galaxies with stellar mass above 10^7.5 Msun.

Abstract

Little is known about the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) in galaxies at cosmic dawn. Studying the first appearance of the MZR is one of the keys to understanding the formation and evolution of the first galaxies. In order to lay the groundwork for upcoming observational campaigns, we analyze 290 galaxies in halos spanning Mh = 10^9-10^11 Msun selected from the FirstLight (FL) cosmological zoom simulations to predict the MZR at z=5-8. Over this interval, the metallicity of FL galaxies with stellar mass Ms= 10^8 Msun declines by < 0.2 dex. This contrasts with the observed tendency for metallicities to increase at lower redshifts, and reflects weakly-evolving or even increasing gas fractions. We assess the use of the R3 strong-line diagnostic as a metallicity indicator, finding that it is informative for 12+log(O/H) < 8 but saturates to R3=3 at higher metallicities owing to a cancellation between enrichment and spectral softening. Nonetheless, campaigns with JWST should be able to detect a clear trend between R3 and stellar mass for Ms > 10^7.5 Msun. We caution that, at fixed metallicity, galaxies with higher specific star formation show higher R3 owing to their more intense radiation fields, indicating a potential for selection biases.