Star-forming galaxies at z~=0.6-1.8

Using integral-field observations from the K-band multi-object spectrograph (KMOS), we quantify the [NII]/H{alpha} emission-line ratio, a proxy for the gas-phase oxygen abundance within the interstellar medium. We define the stellar mass-metallicity relation at z~=0.6-1.0 and z~=1.2-1.8 and analyse the correlation between the scatter in the relation and fundamental galaxy properties (e.g. H{alpha} star formation rate, H{alpha} specific star formation rate, rotation dominance, stellar continuum half-light radius, and Hubble-type morphology).

We find that for a given stellar mass, more highly star-forming, larger, and irregular galaxies have lower gas-phase metallicities, which may be attributable to their lower surface mass densities and the higher gas fractions of irregular systems. We measure the radial dependence of gas- phase metallicity in the galaxies, establishing a median, beam smearing corrected, metallicity gradient of {DELTA}Z/{DELTA}R=0.002+/-0.004dex/kpc, indicating on average there is no significant dependence on radius.