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An investigation of the luminosity-metallicity relation for a large sample of low-metallicity emission-line galaxies
- Source :
- A&A, 2009, 505, 63
- Publication Year :
- 2009
-
Abstract
- (abridged) We present 8.2m VLT spectroscopic observations of 28 HII regions in 16 emission-line galaxies and 3.6m ESO telescope spectroscopic observations of 38 HII regions in 28 emission-line galaxies. These emission-line galaxies were selected mainly from the Data Release 6 (DR6) of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) as metal-deficient galaxy candidates. We collect photometric and high-quality spectroscopic data for a large uniform sample of star forming galaxies including new observations. Our aim is to study the luminosity-metallicity (L-Z) relation for nearby galaxies, especially at its low-metallicity end and compare it with that for higher-redshift galaxies. From our new observations we find that the oxygen abundance in 61 out of the 66 HII regions of our sample ranges from 12+logO/H=7.05 to 8.22. Our sample includes 27 new galaxies with 12+logO/H<7.6 which qualify as extremely metal-poor star-forming galaxies (XBCDs). Among them are 10 HII regions with 12+logO/H<7.3. The new sample is combined with a further 93 low-metallicity galaxies with accurate oxygen abundance determinations from our previous studies, yielding in total a high-quality spectroscopic data set of 154 HII regions. 9000 more galaxies with oxygen abundances, based mainly on the Te-method, are compiled from the SDSS. Our data set spans a range of 8 mag with respect to its absolute magnitude in SDSS g (-12>Mg>-20) and nearly 2 dex in its oxygen abundance (7.0<12+logO/H<8.8), allowing us to probe the L-Z relation in the nearby universe down to the lowest currently studied metallicity level. The L-Z relation established on the basis of the present sample is consistent with previous ones obtained for emission-line galaxies.<br />Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Subjects :
- Astrophysics - Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- arXiv
- Journal :
- A&A, 2009, 505, 63
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsarx.0908.2539
- Document Type :
- Working Paper
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200912414