The DESIRED strong-line calibrations: I. New empirical metallicity relations for the local and high-redshift universe

TL;DR

This paper introduces the most extensive set of empirical optical strong-line metallicity calibrations, covering local and high-redshift galaxies, to improve chemical abundance measurements across cosmic history.

Contribution

It provides 27 new strong-line calibrations based on a large, diverse sample, including uncalibrated diagnostics and considerations for temperature inhomogeneities.

Findings

27 calibrations covering multiple line ratios with validity ranges.

Calibration relations are consistent with JWST high-redshift data.

Sample diversity is crucial for reliable abundance estimates across redshifts.

Abstract

We present the most comprehensive set of empirical optical strong-line metallicity calibrations to date, based on the DEep Spectra of Ionised REgions Database (DESIRED), the largest compilation of HII regions and galaxies with direct electron-temperature determinations assembled to date. We construct a high-quality calibration sample of 2392 spectra$-$1029 extragalactic HII regions, 1296 local star-forming galaxies, and 67 high-redshift ($z > 2$) galaxies$-$drawn from 201 independent literature references and spanning $12+\log({\rm O/H}) \in [6.79, 9.07]$. Physical conditions and chemical abundances are derived homogeneously using up-to-date atomic data. We derive 27 strong-line calibrations covering oxygen-, nitrogen-, sulphur-, argon-, and neon-based line ratios, including 4 previously uncalibrated diagnostics, with reported validity ranges and intrinsic dispersions (typically $\sim0.15-0.35$ dex). For the first time in a systematic calibration framework, all relations are presented for both the homogeneous temperature case ($t^2 = 0$) and a scenario including temperature inhomogeneities ($t^2 > 0$), thereby reconciling abundances from recombination lines (RLs) and collisionally excited lines (CELs) and directly tackling the abundance discrepancy problem. A comparison with previous calibrations shows that the DESIRED relations span the broadest validity intervals while remaining anchored to the empirical data. Crucially, recently proposed JWST-based high-redshift calibrations are consistent with our relations within the intrinsic scatter, demonstrating that the diverse composition of the DESIRED sample naturally encompasses the ionisation conditions found at high redshift. These results indicate that sample diversity, rather than redshift-specific recalibration, is key to reliable abundance determinations across cosmic time.