LEGGOS: Direct abundances of N, O, Ne, S, and Ar in five lensed galaxies at Cosmic Noon

@misc{welch2026leggos,
  title = {{LEGGOS: Direct abundances of N, O, Ne, S, and Ar in five lensed galaxies at Cosmic Noon}},
  author = {Brian Welch and Gourav Khullar and Taylor A. Hutchison and Keren Sharon and Pedram Abedi and Matthew B. Bayliss and Michael Florian and Dylan Berry and Jacqueline Antwi-Danso and Nikko J. Cleri and Håkon Dahle and Aleena Ebey Panzer and Michael D. Gladders and Rion Oh and Cole Panzer and Jane R. Rigby and T. Emil Rivera-Thorsen},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.07851},
  eprint = {2609.07851},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.07851},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - LEGGOS: Direct abundances of N, O, Ne, S, and Ar in five lensed galaxies at Cosmic Noon
AU  - Brian Welch
AU  - Gourav Khullar
AU  - Taylor A. Hutchison
AU  - Keren Sharon
AU  - Pedram Abedi
AU  - Matthew B. Bayliss
AU  - Michael Florian
AU  - Dylan Berry
AU  - Jacqueline Antwi-Danso
AU  - Nikko J. Cleri
AU  - Håkon Dahle
AU  - Aleena Ebey Panzer
AU  - Michael D. Gladders
AU  - Rion Oh
AU  - Cole Panzer
AU  - Jane R. Rigby
AU  - T. Emil Rivera-Thorsen
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/07
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.07851
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.07851
AB  - We present direct T_e chemical abundances in five strongly lensed galaxies at Cosmic Noon (2.481 ≤ z ≤ 3.625) using JWST/NIRSpec data from the LEGGOS survey. We measure gas-phase abundances of N, O, S, and Ar in all five galaxies, and Ne in two galaxies. Three galaxies have electron temperature constraints from multiple different ionization zones, and we find that these are broadly consistent with temperature scaling relations observed in both local and high-z galaxies. We find a range of oxygen abundances 8.04 ≤ 12+log(O/H) ≤ 8.79 (22 -- 126\% Z_⊙). The ratios of N/O and Ne/O are consistent with trends observed in local galaxies. We do not observe any evidence for significant N enhancement in our sample, though the youngest galaxy in our sample (SGAS-J1050) has a mildly elevated log(N/O) = 1.20 ± 0.08, which we suggest may be driven by a population of young massive stars. The ratios of S/O and Ar/O are generally sub-solar, similar to trends observed in other high-z galaxies. We find that the S/O and Ar/O abundances are sub-solar, consistent with enrichment from core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe). Modeling of the star formation histories of the LEGGOS galaxies supports CCSNe enrichment, as each galaxy shows a recent period of star formation lasting ≲ 100 Myr, indicating that type Ia supernovae would not yet have had enough time to contribute significantly to the gas-phase abundances of these galaxies.
ER  -