Study of Chemical Abundances and Ionizing Populations in Extragalactic HII Regions

  • M. Castellanos
  • A. I. Díaz
  • E. Terlevich
Conference paper

Abstract

Long-slit spectrophotometric observations in the optical and near infrared of 14 HII regions in different spiral galaxies (NGC 628, NGC 925, NGC 1232 and NGC 1637) are presented. The main motivation of this work is the search of relatively high excitation (log[OIII]/Hβ≥0.0)-high metallicity (Z≥Z) HII regions as predicted on theoretical grounds, due to the appearance of massive Wolf-Rayet stars that would change the ionisation structure of these regions. Therefore, we have chosen reported high metallicity HII regions that fit our selection criteria from the observed HII region sample of Van Zee et al. (1998). Both the chemical composition of the gas and the ionizing populations responsible of the excitation mechanism are analysed in order to constrain the physical conditions inside these regions.

Keywords

Line Intensity Equivalent Width Spiral Galaxy Abundance Ratio Oxygen Abundance 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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References

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2001

Authors and Affiliations

  • M. Castellanos
    • 1
  • A. I. Díaz
    • 1
  • E. Terlevich
    • 2
  1. 1.Depto. de Física Teórica, Facultad de CienciasUniversidad AutónomaMadridSpain
  2. 2.Optica y Electrónica ApdoInstituto Nacional de AstronomíaPueblaMéxico

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