600 research outputs found
Modeling the dust emission from PN IC418
We construct a detailed model for the IR dust emission from the PN IC 418. We
succeed to reproduce the emission from 2 to 200m. We can determine the
amount of emitting dust as well as its composition, and compare to the
depletion of elements determined for the photoionized region.Comment: Poster contribution (2 pages, 1 figure) to IAU Symposium 283:
"Planetary Nebulae: An Eye to the Future" held in Puerto de la Cruz,
Tenerife, Spain in July 25th-29th 2011. Few typos correcte
O stars effective temperature and HII regions ionization parameter gradients in the Galaxy
Extensive photoionization model grids are computed for single star HII
regions using stellar atmosphere models from the WM-basic code. Mid-IR emission
line intensities are predicted and diagnostic diagrams of [NeIII]/[NeII] and
[SIV]/[SIII] excitation ratio are build, taking into account the metallicities
of both the star and the HII region. The diagrams are used in conjunction with
galactic HII region observations obtained with the ISO Observatory to determine
the effective temperature Teff of the exciting O stars and the mean ionization
parameter U. Teff and U are found to increase and decrease, respectively, with
the metallicity of the HII region represented by the [Ne/Ne_sol] ratio. No
evidence is found for gradients of Teff or U with galactocentric distance Rgal.
The observed excitation sequence with Rgal is mainly due to the effect of the
metallicity gradient on the spectral ionizing shape, upon which the effect of
an increase in Teff with Z is superimposed. We show that not taking properly
into account the effect of metallicity on the ionizing shape of the stellar
atmosphere would lead to an apparent decrease of Teff with Z and an increase of
Teff with Rgal.Comment: Accepted in Ap
No temperature fluctuations in the giant HII region H 1013
While collisionally excited lines in HII regions allow one to easily probe
the chemical composition of the interstellar medium in galaxies, the possible
presence of important temperature fluctuations casts some doubt on the derived
abundances. To provide new insights into this question, we have carried out a
detailed study of a giant HII region, H 1013, located in the galaxy M101, for
which many observational data exist and which has been claimed to harbour
temperature fluctuations at a level of t^2 = 0.03-0.06. We have first
complemented the already available optical observational datasets with a
mid-infrared spectrum obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope. Combined with
optical data, this spectrum provides unprecedented information on the
temperature structure of this giant HII region. A preliminary analysis based on
empirical temperature diagnostics suggests that temperature fluctuations should
be quite weak. We have then performed a detailed modelling using the pyCloudy
package based on the photoionization code Cloudy. We have been able to produce
photoionization models constrained by the observed Hb surface brightness
distribution and by the known properties of the ionizing stellar population
than can account for most of the line ratios within their uncertainties. Since
the observational constraints are both strong and numerous, this argues against
the presence of significant temperature fluctuations in H 1013. The oxygen
abundance of our best model is 12 + log O/H = 8.57, as opposed to the values of
8.73 and 8.93 advocated by Esteban et al. (2009) and Bresolin (2007),
respectively, based on the significant temperature fluctuations they derived.
However, our model is not able to reproduce the intensities of the oxygen
recombination lines . This cannot be attributed to observational uncertainties
and requires an explanation other than temperature fluctuations.Comment: accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysic
Modeling dust emission in PN IC 418
We investigated the infrared (IR) dust emission from PN IC 418, using a
detailed model controlled by a previous determination of the stellar properties
and the characteristics of the photoionized nebula, keeping as free parameters
the dust types, amounts and distributions relative to the distance of the
central star. The model includes the ionized region and the neutral region
beyond the recombination front (Photodissociation region, or PDR), where the
[OI] and [CII] IR lines are formed. We succeeded in reproducing the observed
infrared emission from 2 to 200~\mm. The global energy budget is fitted by
summing up contributions from big grains of amorphous carbon located in the
neutral region and small graphite grains located in the ionized region (closer
to the central star).
Two emission features seen at 11.5 and 30~\mm are also reproduced by assuming
them to be due to silicon carbide (SiC) and magnesium and iron sulfides
(MgFeS), respectively. For this, we needed to consider ellipsoidal
shapes for the grains to reproduce the wavelength distribution of the features.
Some elements are depleted in the gaseous phase: Mg, Si, and S have sub-solar
abundances (-0.5 dex below solar by mass), while the abundance of C+N+O+Ne by
mass is close to solar. Adding the abundances of the elements present in the
dusty and gaseous forms leads to values closer to but not higher than solar,
confirming that the identification of the feature carriers is plausible. Iron
is strongly depleted (3 dex below solar) and the small amount present in dust
in our model is far from being enough to recover the solar value. A remaining
feature is found as a residue of the fitting process, between 12 and 25~\mm,
for which we do not have identification.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics. V2: adding
reference
Mid-IR observations of Galactic HII regions: constraining ionizing spectra of massive stars and the nature of the observed excitation sequences
Extensive photoionization model grids for single star HII regions using a
variety of recent state-of-the-art stellar atmosphere models have been computed
with the main aim of constraining/testing their predicted ionizing spectra
against recent ISO mid-IR observations of Galactic HII regions, which probe the
ionizing spectra between ~ 24 and 41 eV thanks to Ne, Ar, and S fine structure
lines. Particular care has been paid to examining in detail the dependences of
the nebular properties on the numerous nebular parameters (mean ionization
parameter U, abundances, dust etc.) which are generally unconstrained for the
objects considered here. Finally we have examined which parameters are chiefly
responsible for the observed mid-IR excitation sequences. The galactic gradient
of metallicity changing the shape of the stellar emission is found to be one of
the drivers for the excitation sequence of Galactic HII regions, the actual
contribution of this effect being finally atmosphere model dependent. We find
that the dispersion of Teff between different HII regions due to statistical
sampling of the IMF plus additional scatter in the ionization parameter are
probably the dominant driver for the observed excitation scatter.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
Photoionization models of the CALIFA HII regions. I. Hybrid models
Photoionization models of HII regions require as input a description of the
ionizing SED and of the gas distribution, in terms of ionization parameter U
and chemical abundances (e.g. O/H and N/O). A strong degeneracy exists between
the hardness of the SED and U, which in turn leads to high uncertainties in the
determination of the other parameters, including abundances. One way to resolve
the degeneracy is to fix one of the parameters using additional information.
For each of the ~ 20000 sources of the CALIFA HII regions catalog, a grid of
photoionization models is computed assuming the ionizing SED being described by
the underlying stellar population obtained from spectral synthesis modeling.
The ionizing SED is then defined as the sum of various stellar bursts of
different ages and metallicities. This solves the degeneracy between the shape
of the ionizing SED and U. The nebular metallicity (associated to O/H) is
defined using the classical strong line method O3N2 (which gives to our models
the status of "hybrids"). The remaining free parameters are the abundance ratio
N/O and the ionization parameter U, which are determined by looking for the
model fitting [NII]/Ha and [OIII]/Hb. The models are also selected to fit
[OII]/Hb. This process leads to a set of ~ 3200 models that reproduce
simultaneously the three observations.
We find that the regions associated to young stellar bursts suffer leaking of
the ionizing photons, the proportion of escaping photons having a median of
80\%. The set of photoionization models satisfactorily reproduces the electron
temperature derived from the [OIII]4363/5007 line ratio. We determine new
relations between the ionization parameter U and the [OII]/[OIII] or
[SII]/[SIII] line ratios. New relations between N/O and O/H and between U and
O/H are also determined.
All the models are publicly available on the 3MdB database.Comment: Accepted for publication in A&
A photoionization model of the compact HII region G29.96-0.02
We present a detailed photoionization model of G29.96-0.02 (hereafter
G29.96), one of the brightest Galactic Ultra Compact HII (UCHII) regions in the
Galaxy. This source has been observed extensively at radio and infrared
wavelengths. The most recent data include a complete ISO (SWS and LWS)
spectrum, which displays a remarkable richness in atomic fine-structure lines.
The number of observables is twice as much as the number available in previous
studies. In addition, most atomic species are now observed in two ionization
stages. The radio and infrared data on G29.96 are best reproduced using a
nebular model with two density components: a diffuse (n_e~680cm-3) extended (~1
pc) component surrounding a compact (~0.1 pc) dense (n_e~57000cm-3) core. The
properties of the ionizing star were derived using state-of-the-art stellar
atmosphere models. CoStar models yield an effective temperature of
\~30^{+2}_{-1} kK whereas more recent non-LTE line blanketed atmospheres with
stellar winds indicate somewhat higher values, Teff~32--38 kK. This range in
Teff is compatible with all observational constraints, including near-infrared
photometry and bolometric luminosity. The range 33-36 kK is also compatible
with the spectral type O5-O8 determined by Watson and Hanson (97) when recent
downward revisions of the effective temperature scale of O stars are taken into
account. The age of the ionizing star of G29.96 is found to be a few 10^6 yr,
much older than the expected lifetime of UCHII regions. Accurate gas phase
abundances are derived with the most robust results being Ne/S=7.5 and N/O=0.43
(1.3 and 3.5 times the solar values, respectively).Comment: Accepted in Astronomy and Astrophysic
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