The Role of Star Formation and Morphology in the Mass-Metallicity Relation of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon

@misc{hasan2026role,
  title = {{The Role of Star Formation and Morphology in the Mass-Metallicity Relation of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon}},
  author = {Farhanul Hasan and Marc Rafelski and Kalina V. Nedkova and Peter J. Watson and Debra M. Elmegreen and Bruce G. Elmegreen and Zahra Sattari and Vihang Mehta and Alaina Henry and Mitchell Revalski and Ayan Acharyya and Benedetta Vulcani and Grecco A. Oyarzun and Y. Sophia Dai and Xin Wang and Matthew A. Malkan and Claudia M. Scarlata and Matthew J. Hayes and Alexandra Le Reste and Andrew J. Battisti and Anahita Alavi and James Colbert and Hakim Atek and Michael Rutkowski and Tucker Jones and Ilias Goovaerts and Alexander Beckett and Andrew J. Bunker and Mason Huberty},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.37612},
  eprint = {2610.37612},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.37612},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - The Role of Star Formation and Morphology in the Mass-Metallicity Relation of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon
AU  - Farhanul Hasan
AU  - Marc Rafelski
AU  - Kalina V. Nedkova
AU  - Peter J. Watson
AU  - Debra M. Elmegreen
AU  - Bruce G. Elmegreen
AU  - Zahra Sattari
AU  - Vihang Mehta
AU  - Alaina Henry
AU  - Mitchell Revalski
AU  - Ayan Acharyya
AU  - Benedetta Vulcani
AU  - Grecco A. Oyarzun
AU  - Y. Sophia Dai
AU  - Xin Wang
AU  - Matthew A. Malkan
AU  - Claudia M. Scarlata
AU  - Matthew J. Hayes
AU  - Alexandra Le Reste
AU  - Andrew J. Battisti
AU  - Anahita Alavi
AU  - James Colbert
AU  - Hakim Atek
AU  - Michael Rutkowski
AU  - Tucker Jones
AU  - Ilias Goovaerts
AU  - Alexander Beckett
AU  - Andrew J. Bunker
AU  - Mason Huberty
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/28
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.37612
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.37612
AB  - We investigate the dependence of the mass-metallicity relation (MZR) on star formation and galaxy morphology at 1.7<z<3.5, using JWST/NIRISS wide-field slitless spectroscopy of >1000 galaxies. The observations span >85 arcmin^2 from the pure-parallel PASSAGE and OutThere surveys. We derive gas-phase metallicities using a Bayesian framework that combines multiple strong emission-line ratios calibrated against direct auroral-line metallicity measurements from JWST. We constrain stellar masses, star formation rates (SFRs), and morphological properties using ancillary HST and JWST imaging. We stack spectra by stellar mass to constrain the MZR over log(M*/M)~6.5-11, and find that it is well described by a second-order polynomial, with a steep low-mass slope and metallicities<10% solar at log(M*/M)<7.5. Additional stacking by SFR and morphology reveals strong evidence for a fundamental metallicity relation (FMR). Specifically, at log(M*/M)<9.5, galaxies with lower SFRs are more metal-rich than those with higher SFRs at fixed mass. At log(M*/M)<9.5, we find that larger galaxies, and those having lower SFR surface densities, bulges, and/or spiral features are significantly metal rich relative to their smaller, higher SFR surface density, bulge-less, and/or non-spiral counterparts. These results suggest the secondary dependencies of the MZR reflect variations in the baryon cycle, such that recent metal-poor gas accretion drives concentrated star formation and metallicity dilution, while structurally developed galaxies retain more chemically enriched gas reservoirs.
ER  -