Metals in Star-Forming Galaxies with KCWI. I. Methodology and First Results on the Abundances of Iron, Magnesium, and Oxygen

TL;DR

This study introduces a new methodology for measuring stellar abundances of iron and magnesium in star-forming galaxies, compares these to gas-phase oxygen abundances, and explores implications for galaxy chemical evolution and quenching processes.

Contribution

Developed a novel method to simultaneously determine stellar iron and magnesium abundances, enabling direct comparison with gas-phase oxygen in low-mass galaxies.

Findings

[Mg/H]*-[O/H]g relation is tighter than [Fe/H]*-[O/H]g.

Most galaxies show higher oxygen than iron or magnesium stellar abundances.

Mass-metallicity relations vary with element and are influenced by star formation activity.

Abstract

Understanding the chemical enrichment of different elements is crucial to gaining a complete picture of galaxy chemical evolution. In this study, we present a new sample of 46 low-redshift, low-mass star-forming galaxies at $M_*\sim 10^{8-10}M_{\odot}$ along with two quiescent galaxies at $M_*\sim 10^{8.8}M_{\odot}$ observed with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager (KCWI), aiming to investigate the chemical evolution of galaxies in the transition zone between Local Group satellites and massive field galaxies. We develop a novel method to simultaneously determine stellar abundances of iron and magnesium in star-forming galaxies. With the gas-phase oxygen abundance (O/H)$_{\rm g}$ measured using the strong line method, we are able to make the first-ever apples-to-apples comparison of $\alpha$ elements in the stars and the ISM. We find that the [Mg/H]$_*$-[O/H]$_{\rm g}$ relation is much tighter than the [Fe/H]$_*$-[O/H]$_{\rm g}$ relation, which can be explained by the similar production processes of $\alpha$ elements. Most galaxies in our sample exhibit higher [O/H]$_{\rm g}$ than [Fe/H]$_*$ and [Mg/H]$_*$. In addition, we construct mass-metallicity relations (MZRs) measured as three different elements (Fe$_*$, Mg$_*$, O$_{\rm g}$). Compared to the gas O-MZR, the stellar Fe- and Mg-MZRs show larger scatter driven by variations in specific star formation rates (sSFR), with star-forming galaxies exhibiting higher sSFR and lower stellar abundances at fixed mass. The excess of [O/H]$_{\rm g}$ compared to stellar abundances as well as the anti-correlation between sSFR and stellar abundance suggests that galaxy quenching of intermediate-mass galaxies at $M_*\sim 10^{8-10}M_{\odot}$ is primarily driven by starvation.