A Comparison of Rest-frame Ultraviolet and Optical Emission-Line Diagnostics in the Lensed Galaxy SDSS J1723+3411 at Redshift z=1.3293

TL;DR

This study compares UV and optical emission-line diagnostics in a high-redshift lensed galaxy, revealing limitations of UV diagnostics for accurate metallicity and physical condition measurements, and emphasizing the importance of optical lines for future JWST surveys.

Contribution

It provides a detailed comparison of UV and optical emission-line diagnostics in a z=1.3293 galaxy, highlighting the unreliability of UV-only diagnostics for physical condition estimates.

Findings

UV diagnostics often underestimate metallicity

UV diagnostics overestimate pressure

Optical lines provide more reliable physical conditions

Abstract

For the extremely bright lensed galaxy SDSS J1723+3411 at z=1.3293 , we analyze spatially integrated MMT, Keck, and Hubble Space Telescope spectra that fully cover the rest-frame wavelength range of 1400 to 7200 Angstroms. We also analyze near-IR spectra from Gemini that cover H alpha for a portion of the lensed arc. We report fluxes for 42 detected emission lines, and upper limits for an additional 22. This galaxy has extreme emission line ratios and high equivalent widths that are characteristic of extreme emission-line galaxies. We compute strong emission line diagnostics from both the rest-frame optical and rest-frame ultraviolet (UV), to constrain physical conditions and test the spectral diagnostics themselves. We tightly determine the nebular physical conditions using the most reliable diagnostics, and then compare to results from other diagnostics. We find disappointing performance from the UV--only diagnostics: they either are unable to measure the metallicity or dramatically under-estimate it; they over-estimate the pressure; and the UV diagnostic of ionization parameter has a strong metallicity dependence in this regime. Based on these results, we suggest that upcoming James Webb Space Telescope spectroscopic surveys of galaxies in the reionization epoch should invest the additional integration time to capture the optical [O II] and [O III] emission lines, and not rely solely on the rest-frame UV emission lines. We make available the spectra; they represent one of the highest-quality emission line spectral atlases of star-forming galaxy available beyond the local universe, and will aid planning observations with JWST.