Abstract
We present an atlas of starburst galaxy emission lines spanning 10 orders of magnitude in ionizing flux and 7 orders of magnitude in hydrogen number density. Coupling SEDs from Starburst99 with photoionization calculations from Cloudy, we track 96 emission lines from 977 Å to \(205~\upmu\mbox{m}\) which are common to nebular regions, have been observed in H II regions, and serve as useful diagnostic lines. Each simulation grid displays equivalent widths and contains \(\sim1.5\times10^{4}\) photoionization models calculated by supplying a spectral energy distribution, chemical abundances, dust content, and gas metallicity (ranging from \(0.2~Z _{\odot}\) to \(5.0~Z _{\odot}\)). Our simulations will prove useful in starburst emission line data analysis, especially regarding local starburst galaxies that show high ionization emission lines. One sample application of our atlas predicts that C IV \(\lambda\)1549 will serve as a useful diagnostic emission line of vigorous star formation for coming James Webb Space Telescope observations predicting a peak equivalent width of approximately 316 Å.
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Acknowledgements
HM and CTR would like to thank the Elon University Lumen Prize, Honors Program, Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE), and Student Undergraduate Research Forum (SURF). CTR would like to acknowledge Elon University for Reassigned Time and Summer Research Fellowships and acknowledge the support of the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE), which is supported by National Science Foundation grant number OCI-1053575. We greatly appreciate the insightful comments of Tony Crider, which improved the quality of this paper.
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Appendix: Tracked emission lines
Appendix: Tracked emission lines
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Meskhidze, H., Richardson, C.T. An atlas of star-forming galaxy equivalent widths. Astrophys Space Sci 362, 200 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-017-3178-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-017-3178-9