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The elemental abundance pattern in a galaxy at z = 2.626

Nature volume 423, pages 57–59 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

The discovery of metal-poor stars1,2 (where metal is any element more massive than helium) has enabled astronomers to probe the chemical enrichment history of the Milky Way3,4. More recently, element abundances in gas inside high-redshift galaxies has been probed through the absorption lines imprinted on the spectra of background quasars5,6,7,8, but these have typically yielded measurements of only a few elements. Furthermore, interpretation of these abundances is complicated by the fact that differential incorporation of metals into dust can produce an abundance pattern similar to that expected from nucleosynthesis by massive stars9. Here we report the observation of over 25 elements in a galaxy at redshift z = 2.626. With these data, we can examine nucleosynthetic processes independent of the uncertainty arising from depletion. We find that the galaxy was enriched mainly by massive stars (M > 15 solar masses) and propose that it is the progenitor of a massive elliptical galaxy. The detailed abundance patterns suggest that boron is produced through processes that act independently of metallicity, and may require alternative mechanisms for the nucleosynthesis of germanium.

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Figure 1: Sample of previously undetected metal-line transitions.
Figure 2: The nucleosynthetic enrichment pattern for a galaxy discovered in the early Universe.

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Acknowledgements

These observations were made with the W.M. Keck Telescope. The Keck Observatory is a joint facility of the University of California, the California Institute of Technology, and NASA. J.C.H. acknowledges support from a NASA grant to UC San Diego.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. UCO/Lick Observatory, University of California, Santa Cruz, California, 95064, USA

    Jason X. Prochaska

  2. Department of Physics, and Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, University of California, San Diego, C-0424, La Jolla, California, 92093, USA

    J. Christopher Howk & Arthur M. Wolfe

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  1. Jason X. Prochaska
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  2. J. Christopher Howk
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Correspondence to Jason X. Prochaska.

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Prochaska, J., Howk, J. & Wolfe, A. The elemental abundance pattern in a galaxy at z = 2.626. Nature 423, 57–59 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature01524

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