1. Constraining the physical properties of gas in high-z galaxies with far-infrared and submillimetre line ratios
- Author
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Schimek, Alice, Cicone, Claudia, Shen, Sijing, Decataldo, Davide, Klaassen, Pamela, and Mayer, Lucio
- Subjects
Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics - Abstract
Optical emission line diagnostics, which are a common tool to constrain the properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies, become progressively inaccessible at higher redshifts for ground-based facilities. Far-infrared (FIR) emission lines, which are redshifted into atmospheric windows accessible by ground-based sub-millimeter facilities, could provide alternative ISM diagnostics to optical emission lines. We investigate FIR line ratios involving [CII]$\lambda 158 \mu$m, [OIII]$\lambda 88 \mu$m, [OIII]$\lambda 52 \mu$m, [NII]$\lambda 122 \mu$m and [NIII$\lambda 57 \mu$m, using synthetic emission lines applied to a high-resolution (m$_{\rm gas}$= 883.4 M$_{\odot}$) cosmological zoom-in simulation, including radiative-transfer post processing with KramsesRT at z = 6.5. We find that the [CII]/[NII]122 ratio is sensitive to the temperature and density of photo-dissociation regions, and thus could be a useful tool to trace the properties of this gas phase in galaxies. We also find that [NII]/[NIII] is a good tracer of the temperature and [OIII]52/[OIII]88 a good tracer of the gas density of HII regions. Emission line ratios containing the [OIII]$\lambda 88 \mu$m line are sensitive to high velocity outflowing gas., Comment: Accepted for publication to A&A. 7 pages, 5 figures
- Published
- 2024
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