AMAZE - Assessing the Mass-Abundance redshift Evolution

AMAZE (Assessing the Mass-Abundance redshift[-Z] Evolution) is an ESO large program aimed at determining the mass-metallicity relation and galaxy dynamics in the redshift range 3< z < 5. Observations have been performed with SINFONI, the near-IR integral field spectrometer at VLT, for a total of 180 h, distributed in three semesters under the program ID 178.B-0838 (A) (B) (C), PI: R. Maiolino. SINFONI was used in seeing-limited mode, with the 0.125"x0.25" pixel scale and the H+K grism, yielding a spectral resolution R ∼1500 over the spectral range 1.45 − 2.41 μm. The two-dimensional spectroscopic capabilities of SINFONI are exploited to map the emission lines. The main goal of the SINFONI observations is to determine the gas metallicities by means of a combination of strong line diagnostics based on Hβ and [OIII]5007 redshifted into the K band, as well as [OII]3727 and [NeIII]3870 redshifted into the H band for sources at 3 < z < 4. At 4 < z > 5.2 we only rely on the [OII]/[NeIII] ratio observed in the K band. The spectral resolution is also high enough to trace galaxy kinematics in most cases.