Direct determination of oxygen abundances in line emitting star-forming
  galaxies at intermediate redshift
  We present a sample of 22 blue ($(B-V)_{AB}<0.45$), luminous
($M_{B,AB}<-18.9$), metal-poor galaxies in the $0.69<z<0.88$ redshift range,
selected from the DEEP2 galaxy redshift survey. Their spectra contain the
$[OIII]\lambda4363$ auroral line, the $[OII]\lambda \lambda3726,3729$ doublet
and the strong nebular $[OIII]\lambda \lambda 4959,5007$ emission lines. The
ionised gas-phase oxygen abundances of these galaxies lie between $7.62<12+\log
O/H < 8.19$, i.e. between $1/10 Z_{\odot}$ and $1/3 Z_{\odot}$. We find that
galaxies in our sample have comparable metallicities to other
intermediate-redshift samples, but are more metal poor than local systems of
similar B-band luminosities and star formation activity. The galaxies here show
similar properties to the "green peas" discovered at $z\simeq 0.2 - 0.3$ though
our galaxies tend to be slightly less luminous.
