New Ionization Models and the Shocking Nitrogen Excess at z > 5

TL;DR

This paper develops new ionization models and diagnostics to explain the nitrogen excess in high-redshift galaxies, highlighting the role of radiative shocks and active galactic nuclei in shaping nebular emission and chemical abundance interpretations.

Contribution

It introduces homogeneous excitation models for different galaxy types and proposes new diagnostics to classify z > 5 galaxies, emphasizing the significance of shocks and AGN activity.

Findings

Slow/intermediate radiative shocks align with UV emission line ratios in nitrogen-rich galaxies.

Shocks and AGN activity can explain nitrogen excess and influence abundance estimates.

New diagnostics effectively distinguish between shocks, star formation, and black hole activity.

Abstract

The new era of galaxy evolution studies hearkened in by JWST has led to the discovery of z > 5 galaxies exhibiting excess nitrogen with log(N/O)~1 dex or more than expected from log(N/O) vs 12+log(O/H) trends in the local Universe. A variety of novel enrichment pathways have been presented to explain the apparent nitrogen excess, invoking a wide range of processes from very massive stars to stripped binaries to fine-tuned star-formation histories. However, understanding the excitation mechanism responsible for the observed nebular emission is necessary to accurately infer chemical abundances. As of yet, the ionization sources of these galaxies have not been thoroughly explored, with radiative shocks left out of the picture. We present a suite of homogeneous excitation models for star-forming galaxies, active galactic nuclei, and radiative shocks, with which we explore possible explanations for the apparent nitrogen excess. We propose new BPT-style diagnostics to classify galaxies at z > 5, finding that, when combined with O iii] 1660,66 and He ii 1640, N iii] 1747-54 / C iii] 1907,09 best selects shock-dominated galaxies while N iv] 1483,86 / C iii] 1907,09 best distinguishes between active black holes and star forming galaxies. From our diagnostics, we find that slow/intermediate radiative shocks (v = 75-150 km/s) are most consistent with observed UV emission line flux ratios in nitrogen-bright galaxies. Accounting for the effects of shocks can bring nitrogen estimates into better agreement with abundance patterns observed in the local Universe and may be attributable to Wolf Rayet populations actively enriching these galaxies with nitrogen and possibly driving winds responsible for these shocks.