The host galaxies of gamma-ray bursts. II. A mass-metallicity relation for long-duration gamma-ray burst host galaxies

Abstract

We present a statistically robust mass-metallicity relation for long-duration gamma-ray burst (LGRB) host galaxies at z < 1. By comparing the LGRB host mass-metallicity relation to samples representative of the general starforming galaxy population, we conclude that LGRBs occur in host galaxies with lower metallicities than the general population, and that this trend extends to z ∼ 1, with an average offset of -0.42 ± 0.18 from the M-Z relation for star-forming galaxies. Our sample in this work includes new spectroscopic data for six LGRB host galaxies obtained at the Keck and Magellan telescopes, as well as two new host galaxies from the literature. Combined with data from our previous work, this yields a total sample of six LGRB host galaxies at z < 0.3 and 10 host galaxies at 0.3 < z < 1. We have determined a number of interstellar medium properties for our host galaxies using optical emission-line diagnostics including metallicity, ionization parameter, young stellar population age, and star formation rate. Across our full sample of 16 LGRB hosts we find an average metallicity of log(O/H) + 12 = 8.4 ± 0.3. Notably, we also measure a comparatively high metallicity of log(O/H) + 12 = 8.83 ± 0.1 for the z = 0.296 host galaxy of GRB 050826. We also determine stellar masses (M*) for our LGRB host galaxy sample, finding a mean stellar mass of log(M*/M⊙) = 9.25-0.23+0.19.