AMAZE (Assessing the Mass-Abundance redshift[Z] Evolution) is an ESO large program aimed at investigating the metallicity and dynamical evolution of star forming galaxies at z>3. This program was awarded 180 hours of observations with SINFONI, the near-IR integral field spectrometer at the VLT. It consists of deep, seeing limited observations of about 30 star forming galaxies (Lyman Break selected), most of which at 3.0<z<3.7 and a few of them at 4.2<z<5.2. For these galaxies the nebular lines [OIII]3727 and [NeIII]3869 are redshifted into the H band, while Hbeta and [OIII]5007 are redshifted into the band. The flux ratio of these lines allow us to measure the gas metallicity, while their velocity shift and dispersion allow us to investigate the galaxy kinematics.
LSD (Lyman-break galaxies Stellar population and Dynamics) is a companion program that was awarded 70 hours of observations with SINFONI assisted by the Adaptive Optics module, so to achieve a much higher angular resolution relative to the seeing limited observations. The sample consists of 8 Lyman Break galaxies at z~3.3 selected to have a nearby bright star, required to guide the Adaptive Optics system.
In both projects the line emission (especially the stronghest one, [OIII]5007) is generally spatially resolved by the data. The projected spatial resolution is typically about 5 kpc (seeing ~0.6") for the Amaze data and about 1 kpc for the (nearly) diffraction limited data in LSD (PSF~0.12").
In both samples extensive multiband photometry (including Spitzer data) allowed us to tightly constrain the stellar masses. The star formation rate is inferred by using both the Hbeta luminosity and the SED broad-band fitting, generally obtaining consistent results.
A detailed description of these two programs, are given in Maiolino et al. (2008), Mannucci et al. (2009) and Troncoso et al. (2014). More results have been published in additional papers listed below, while follow-up observations are delivering additional results.
Overall the two programs have been very successful, by finding a clear evolution of galaxies at z>3 relative to the local mass-SFR-metallicity relation, by finding turbulent massive rotating disks, and by resolving in such disk clear and peculiar metallicity gradients. A detailed description of such results is given in the publications listed below.
Current list of publications (click on title to access the paper):
"AMAZE. I. The evolution of the mass-metallicity relation at z > 3"
Maiolino, R.; Nagao, T.; Grazian, A.; Cocchia, F.; Marconi, A.; Mannucci, F.; Cimatti, A.; Pipino, A.; Ballero, S.; Calura, F.; Chiappini, C.; Fontana, A.; Granato, G. L.; Matteucci, F.; Pastorini, G.; Pentericci, L.; Risaliti, G.; Salvati, M.; Silva, L.,
2008, A&A 488, 463
"LSD: Lyman-break galaxies Stellar populations and Dynamics - I. Mass, metallicity and gas at z ~ 3.1"
Mannucci, F.; Cresci, G.; Maiolino, R.; Marconi, A.; Pastorini, G.; Pozzetti, L.; Gnerucci, A.; Risaliti, G.; Schneider, R.; Lehnert, M.; Salvati, M.
2009, MNRAS 398, 1915
"Dynamical properties of AMAZE and LSD galaxies from gas kinematics and the Tully-Fisher relation at z~3"
Gnerucci, A.; Marconi, A.; Cresci, G.; Maiolino, R.; Mannucci, F.; Calura, F.; Cimatti, A.; Cocchia, F.; Grazian, A.; Matteucci, F.; Nagao, T.; Pozzetti, L.; Troncoso, P.
2010, A&A submitted, (arXiv:1007.4180)
"Gas accretion as the origin of chemical abundance gradients in distant galaxies"
Cresci, G.; Mannucci, F.; Maiolino, R.; Marconi, A.; Gnerucci, A.; Magrini, L.
2010, Nature 467, 811
"A dynamical mass estimator for high z galaxies based on spectroastrometry"
Gnerucci, A.; Marconi, A; Cresci, G.; Maiolino, R.; Mannucci, F.
2011, A&A 533, 124
"Metallicity evolution, metallicity gradients, and gas fractions at z ~ 3.4"
Troncoso, P.; Maiolino, R.; Sommariva, V.; Cresci, G.; Mannucci, F.; Marconi, A.; Meneghetti, M.; Grazian, A.; Cimatti, A.; Fontana, A.; Nagao, T.; Pentericci, L.
2014, A&A 563, 58
"Stellar metallicity of star-forming galaxies at z ~ 3"
Sommariva, V.; Mannucci, F.; Cresci, G.; Maiolino, R.; Marconi, A.; Nagao, T.; Baroni, A.; Grazian, A.
2012, A&A 539, 136
"AMAZE and LSD: metallicity and dynamical evolution of galaxies in the early Universe"
R. Maiolino, F. Mannucci, G. Cresci, A. Gnerucci, P. Troncoso, A. Marconi, F. Calura, A. Cimatti, F. Cocchia, A. Fontana, G.L. Granato, A. Grazian, F. Matteucci, T. Nagao, L. Pentericci, A. Pipino, L. Pozzetti, G. Risaliti, L. Silva
2010, The Messenger, 142, 36
Team
Roberto Maiolino - Cavendish Laboratory, Kavli Institute for Cosmology - University of Cambridge
Filippo Mannucci - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy
Giovanni Cresci - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy
Alessandro Marconi - Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Italy
Alessio Gnerucci - Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Italy
Paulina Troncoso - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
Francesco Calura - Jeremiah Horrocks Institutefor Astrophysics and Supercomputing,
University of Central Lancashire, Preston, U.K.
Mena Cocchia - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
Andrea Grazian - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
Tohru Nagao - Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Ehime University, Japan
Antonio Pipino - Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, LosAngeles, U.S.A
Francesca Matteucci - Dipartimento di Fisica, Universita' di Trieste, Italy
Andrea Cimatti - Dipartimento di Astronomia, Universita' di Bologna, Italy
Adriano Fontana - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
Gian Luigi Granato - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Italy
Laura Pentericci - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
Lucia Pozzetti - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Italy
Guido Risaliti - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy
Marco Salvati - INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy
Laura Silva - INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Italy
Public data release
This is a link to a gzipped tar file containing all of the reduced AMAZE spectra in fits format. The file also contains JPEG images showing (smoothed) spectra of individual sources around the region of interest of the main nebular lines. The full set data cubes can be requested to the PI of the project.