Cold-mode Accretion: Driving the Fundamental Mass-metallicity Relation at z ∼ 2
Article
| Article Title | Cold-mode Accretion: Driving the Fundamental Mass-metallicity Relation at z ∼ 2 | 
|---|---|
| ERA Journal ID | 45091 | 
| Article Category | Article | 
| Authors | Kacprzak, Glenn G., van de Voort, Freeke, Glazebrook, Karl, Tran, Kim-Vy H., Yuan, Tiantian, Nanayakkara, Themiya, Allen, Rebecca J., Alcorn, Leo, Cowley, Michael, Labbé, Ivo, Spitler, Lee, Straatman, Caroline and Tomczak, Adam | 
| Journal Title | The Astrophysical Journal Letters | 
| Journal Citation | 826 (1), pp. 1-6 | 
| Article Number | L11 | 
| Number of Pages | 6 | 
| Year | 2016 | 
| Publisher | IOP Publishing | 
| Place of Publication | United Kingdom | 
| ISSN | 2041-8205 | 
| 2041-8213 | |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8205/826/1/L11 | 
| Web Address (URL) | https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8205/826/1/L11 | 
| Abstract | We investigate the star formation rate (SFR) dependence on the stellar mass and gas-phase metallicity relation at z = 2 with MOSFIRE/Keck as part of the ZFIRE survey. We have identified 117 galaxies (1.98 ≤ z ≤ 2.56), with 8.9 ≤ log(M/M o) ≤ 11.0, for which we can measure gas-phase metallicities. For the first time, we show a discernible difference between the mass-metallicity relation, using individual galaxies, when dividing the sample by low (<10 M o yr-1) and high (>10 M o yr-1) SFRs. At fixed mass, low star-forming galaxies tend to have higher metallicity than high star-forming galaxies. Using a few basic assumptions, we further show that the gas masses and metallicities required to produce the fundamental mass-metallicity relation and its intrinsic scatter are consistent with cold-mode accretion predictions obtained from the OWLS hydrodynamical simulations. Our results from both simulations and observations are suggestive that cold-mode accretion is responsible for the fundamental mass-metallicity relation at z = 2 and it demonstrates the direct relationship between cosmological accretion and the fundamental properties of galaxies. | 
| Keywords | cosmology: observations; galaxies: abundances; galaxies: evolution; galaxies: fundamental parameters; galaxies: high-redshift; intergalactic medium | 
| Contains Sensitive Content | Does not contain sensitive content | 
| Public Notes | For access to this article, please click on the URL link provided. | 
| Funder | National Science Foundation | 
| Byline Affiliations | Swinburne University of Technology | 
| University of California, United States | |
| Academia Sinica, Taiwan | |
| Texas A&M University, United States | |
| Australian National University | |
| Australian Astronomical Observatory, Australia | |
| Macquarie University | |
| Leiden University, Netherlands | 
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/w45xv/cold-mode-accretion-driving-the-fundamental-mass-metallicity-relation-at-z-2
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