Mass-metallicity relation explored with CALIFA

I. Is there a dependence on the star-formation rate?^⋆

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, Aptdo. 3004, 18080-, Granada, Spain
e-mail: sanchez@iaa.es
² Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán, Calar Alto, (CSIC − MPG), C/Jesús Durbán Remón 2-2, 04004 Almería, Spain
³ Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Boční II 1401/1a, 141 00 Prague, Czech Republic
⁴ Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
⁵ Instituto Nacional de AstrofísicaÓptica y Electrónica, Luis E. Erro 1 72840 Tonantzintla Puebla Mexico
⁶ CEI Campus Moncloa, UCM-UPM, Departamento de Astrofísica y CC. de la Atmósfera, Facultad de CC. Físicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Avda. Complutense s/n, 28040 Madrid, Spain
⁷ Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
⁸ Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, PO Box 476, 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
⁹ CENTRA − Instituto Superior Tecnico, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisbon, Portugal
¹⁰ Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
¹¹ Laboratoire Galaxies Étoiles Physique et Instrumentation, Observatoire de Paris, 5 place Jules Janssen, 92195 Meudon, France
¹² Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics A28, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
¹³ Australian Astronomical Observatory, PO box 296, Epping, NSW 1710, Australia
¹⁴ Departamento de Investigación Básica, CIEMAT, Avda. Complutense 40, 28040 Madrid, Spain
¹⁵ Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
¹⁶ Centro de Astrofísica and Faculdade de Ciencias, Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal
¹⁷ University of Sheffield, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Hicks Building, Hounsfield Road, Sheffield, S3 7RH, UK
¹⁸ Dpto. de Física Teórica y del Cosmos, University of Granada, Facultad de Ciencias (Edificio Mecenas), 18071 Granada, Spain
¹⁹ Depto. Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna (ULL), 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
²⁰ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
²¹ University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria
²² Landessternwarte, Zentrum für Astronomie der Universitát Heidelberg, Königstuhl 12, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
²³ Astronomical Institute of the Ruhr-University Bochum Universitaetsstr. 150, 44801 Bochum, Germany . ^⋆⋆

Received: 30 October 2012
Accepted: 8 April 2013

Abstract

We studied the global and local ℳ-Z relation based on the first data available from the CALIFA survey (150 galaxies). This survey provides integral field spectroscopy of the complete optical extent of each galaxy (up to 2−3 effective radii), with a resolution high enough to separate individualH ii  regions and/or aggregations. About 3000 individualH ii   regions have been detected. The spectra cover the wavelength range between [OII]3727 and [SII]6731, with a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio to derive the oxygen abundance and star-formation rate associated with each region. In addition, we computed the integrated and spatially resolved stellar masses (and surface densities) based on SDSS photometric data. We explore the relations between the stellar mass, oxygen abundance and star-formation rate using this dataset.

We derive a tight relation between the integrated stellar mass and the gas-phase abundance, with a dispersion lower than the one already reported in the literature (σ_{Δlog (O/H)} = 0.07 dex). Indeed, this dispersion is only slightly higher than the typical error derived for our oxygen abundances. However, we found no secondary relation with the star-formation rate other than the one induced by the primary relation of this quantity with the stellar mass. The analysis for our sample of  ~3000 individualH ii   regions confirms (i) a local mass-metallicity relation and (ii) the lack of a secondary relation with the star-formation rate. The same analysis was performed with similar results for the specific star-formation rate.

Our results agree with the scenario in which gas recycling in galaxies, both locally and globally, is much faster than other typical timescales, such like that of gas accretion by inflow and/or metal loss due to outflows. In essence, late-type/disk-dominated galaxies seem to be in a quasi-steady situation, with a behavior similar to the one expected from an instantaneous recycling/closed-box model.