Eliminating error in the chemical abundance scale for extragalactic H ii regions

By Á. López-Sánchez, M. Dopita, Lisa J. Kewley, H. Zahid, D. Nicholls, J. Scharwächter. 2012

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In an attempt to remove the systematic errors which have plagued the calibration of the Hii region abundance sequence, we have theoretically modeled the extragalactic Hii region sequence. We then used the theoretical spectra so generated in a double blind experiment to recover the chemical abundances using both the classical electron temperature + ionization correction factor technique, and the technique which de- pends on the use of strong emission lines (SELs) in the nebular spectrum to estimate the abundance of oxygen. We find a number of systematic trends, and we provide correction formulae which should remove systematic errors in the electron tempera- ture + ionization correction factor technique. We also provide a critical evaluation of the various semi-empirical SEL techniques. Finally, we offer a scheme which should help to eliminate systematic errors in the SEL-derived chemical abundance scale for extragalactic Hii regions.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2a41ffc30f9ecbc40d34e8daef7f7b9249725dae

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Citations in the corpus

Mass-metallicity relation explored with CALIFA I. Is there a dependence on the star-formation rate? (2013, background): “In fact, there is a clear correspondence not only with the calibrators (e.g. López-Sánchez et al. 2012), but also between the line ratios used to derive them (e.g. Sánchez et al. 2012b).”
Chemical abundances in high-redshift galaxies: a powerful new emission line diagnostic (2016, methodology): “…of electron temperature Te (Pilyugin & Thuan 2005; Pilyugin & Mattsson 2011), the use of hybrid approaches (van Zee et al. 1998), relying only on strong emission line methods (McGaugh 1991), or simply by directly calibrating the theoretical photoionization models (López-Sánchez et al. 2012).”
NEW STRONG-LINE ABUNDANCE DIAGNOSTICS FOR H ii REGIONS: EFFECTS OF κ-DISTRIBUTED ELECTRON ENERGIES AND NEW ATOMIC DATA (2013, methodology): “This effect is clearly highlighted in López-Sánchez et al. (2012).”
SDSS IV MaNGA – metallicity and nitrogen abundance gradients in local galaxies (2017, background): “Different calibrations, even when based on the same diagnostics ratios, can give results differing by up to 0.6 dex (Kewley & Ellison 2008; López-Sánchez et al. 2012; Peña-Guerrero et al. 2012).”
The mass–metallicity and the fundamental metallicity relation revisited on a fully Te-based abundance scale for galaxies (2019, methodology): “…when comparing abundances determined from the Te method and different methods (i.e. strong-line diagnostics based on predictions from grids of photoionisation models), which are well known to be affected by systematic discrepancies (e.g. Kewley & Ellison 2008; López-Sánchez et al. 2012).”
New fully empirical calibrations of strong-line metallicity indicators in star forming galaxies (2016, background): “Since the scatter in a given line ratio at fixed metallicity is often regarded as driven by variations in the ionization parameter (e.g. Kewley & Dopita 2002, López-Sánchez et al. 2012, Blanc et al. 2015) our binning choice takes into account this possible source of scatter.”
A characteristic oxygen abundance gradient in galaxy disks unveiled with CALIFA (2013, methodology): “It is beyond the scope of the current study to make a detailed comparison of the oxygen abundances derived using the different proposed methods, such as was presented by Kewley & Ellison (2008) or López-Sánchez et al. (2012).”
THE ORIGIN AND OPTICAL DEPTH OF IONIZING RADIATION IN THE “GREEN PEA” GALAXIES (2013, methodology): “At metallicities Z ≤ 0.2Z⊙, temperature gradients in nebulae can cause the direct method to under- or over-estimate metallicities by 0.2- 0.5 dex (López-Sánchez et al. 2012).”
THEORETICAL EVOLUTION OF OPTICAL STRONG LINES ACROSS COSMIC TIME (2013, methodology): “A full description of the models, including geometry, is given in López-Sánchez et al. (2012).”
New calibrations for abundance determinations in H ii regions (2016, methodology): “…by factors of 1.5 to 5 higher than those derived through the directTe method or through empirical calibrations (e.g.,Kennicutt, Bresolin & Garnett 2003; Pilyugin 2003; Kewley & Ellison 2008; Bresolin et al. 2009; Moustakas et al. 2010; López-Sánchez & Esteban 2010; López-Sánchez et al. 2012).”