The metallicities of luminous, massive field galaxies at intermediate redshifts

Abstract

We derive oxygen abundances for a sample of 40 luminous (M_{B} < -19), star-forming, mostly disk, field galaxies with redshifts in the range 0.2 < z < 0.8$, with a median of <z> = 0.45. Oxygen abundances, relative to hydrogen, of the interstellar emitting gas are estimated by means of the empirically calibrated strong emission line ratio technique. The derived (12+log(O/H)) values range from 8.4 to 9.0, with a median of 8.7. Twenty of these galaxies have securely measured rotation velocities, in the range 50--244 km/s. The measured emission line equivalent widths and diagnostic ratios for the intermediate redshift galaxies cover similar ranges to those observed across a large sample of local galaxies. The estimated oxygen abundances for our luminous star-forming intermediate redshift galaxies cover the same range as their local counterparts. However, at a given galaxy luminosity, many of our galaxies have significantly lower oxygen abundances, i.e., $(12+log(O/H))~8.6$, than local galaxies with similar luminosities. Interestingly, these luminous, massive, intermediate redshift, star-forming galaxies with low oxygen abundances exhibit physical conditions, i.e., emission line equivalent width and ionization state, very similar to those of local faint and metal-poor star-forming galaxies. The oxygen abundance of the interstellar gas does not seem to correlate with the maximum rotation velocity or the emission scale length of the parent galaxy. This suggests that there is a diversity in the intrinsic properties of the massive field galaxy population at intermediate redshifts (ABRIDGED).