Letter to the Editor

Star-forming galaxies in SDSS: signs of metallicity evolution

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, 38200 La Laguna, Spain e-mail: mall@iac.es
² Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de la Laguna, Spain
³ Herschel Science Center, INSA/ESAC, Madrid, Spain

Received: 25 September 2008
Accepted: 16 November 2008

Abstract

Context. Evolution of galaxies through cosmic time has been widely studied at high redshift, but there are a few studies in this field at lower redshifts. However, low-redshifts studies will provide important clues to the evolution of galaxies, furnishing the required link between local and high-redshift universe.

Aims. In this work we focus on the metallicity of the gas in spiral galaxies at low redshift looking for signs of chemical evolution. We analyze the metallicity contents of star forming galaxies of similar luminosities at different redshifts, we studied the metallicity of star forming galaxies from SDSS-DR5 (Sloan Digital Sky Survey-Data Release 5), using different redshift intervals from 0.1 to 0.4.

Methods. We used the public data of SDSS-DR5 processed with the STARLIGHT spectral synthesis code, correcting the fluxes for dust extinction, estimating metallicities using the R₂₃ method, and analyzing the samples with respect to the [N ii] λ6583/[O ii] λ3727 line ratio.

Results. From a final sample of 207 galaxies, we find a decrement in 12+log(O/H) corresponding to the redshift interval 0.3 < z < 0.4 of ~0.1 dex with respect to the rest of the sample, which can be interpreted as evidence of the metallicity evolution in low-z galaxies.