%0 Journal Article
%T The Chemical Evolution of Star-Forming Galaxies Over the Last 11 Billion Years
%A H. Jabran Zahid
%A Margaret Geller
%A Lisa Kewley
%A Ho Seong Hwang
%A Daniel Fabricant
%A Michael Kurtz
%J Physics
%D 2013
%I arXiv
%R 10.1088/2041-8205/771/2/L19
%X We calculate the stellar mass-metallicity relation at five epochs ranging to z~2.3. We quantify evolution in the shape of the mass-metallicity relation as a function of redshift; the mass-metallicity relation flattens at late times. There is an empirical upper limit to the gas-phase oxygen abundance in star-forming galaxies that is independent of redshift. From examination of the mass-metallicity relation and its observed scatter we show that the flattening at late times is a consequence of evolution in the stellar mass where galaxies enrich to this empirical upper metallicity limit; there is also evolution in the fraction of galaxies at a fixed stellar mass that enrich to this limit. The stellar mass where metallicities begin to saturate is ~0.7 dex smaller in the local universe than it is at z~0.8.
%U http://arxiv.org/abs/1303.5987v2