Chemical evolution in spiral and irregular galaxies

A brief review of models of chemical evolution of the interstellar medium in our galaxy and other galaxies is presented. These models predict the time variation and radial dependence of chemical composition in the gas as function of the input parameters; initial mass function, stellar birth rate, chemical composition of mass lost by stars during their evolution (yields), and the existence of large scale mass flows, like infall from the halo, outflow to the intergalactic medium or radial flows within a galaxy. At present there is a considerable wealth of observational data on the composition of HII regions in spiral and irregular galaxies to constrain the models. Comparisons are made between theory and the observed physical conditions. In particular, studies of helium, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen abundances are reviewed. In many molecular clouds the information we have on the amount of H2 is derived from the observed CO column density, and a standard CO/H2 ratio derived for the solar neighborhood. Chemical evolution models and the observed variations in O/H and N/O values, point out the need to include these results in a CO/H2 relation that should be, at least, a function of the O/H ratio. This aspect is also discussed

Analysis of two SMC HII Regions Considering Thermal Inhomogeneities: Implications for the Determinations of Extragalactic Chemical Abundances

We present long slit spectrophotometry considering the presence of thermal inhomogeneities (t^2) of two HII regions in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC): NGC 456 and NGC 460. Physical conditions and chemical abundances were determined for three positions in NGC 456 and one position in NGC 460, first under the assumption of uniform temperature and then allowing for the possibility of thermal inhomogeneities. We determined t^2 values based on three different methods: i) by comparing the temperature derived using oxygen forbidden lines with the temperature derived using helium recombination lines, ii) by comparing the abundances derived from oxygen forbidden lines with those derived from oxygen recombination lines, and iii) by comparing the abundances derived from ultraviolet carbon forbidden lines with those derived from optical carbon recombination lines. The first two methods averaged t^2=0.067+-0.013 for NGC 456 and t^2=0.036+-0.027 for NGC 460. These values of t^2 imply that when gaseous abundances are determined with collisionally excited lines they are underestimated by a factor of nearly 2. From these objects and others in the literature, we find that in order to account for thermal inhomogeneities and dust depletion, the O/H ratio in low metallicity HII regions should be corrected by 0.25-0.45 dex depending on the thermal structure of the nebula, or by 0.35 dex if such information is not available.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. 41 pages in pre-print format. 3 figure

On the abundance discrepancy problem in HII regions

The origin of the abundance discrepancy is one of the key problems in the physics of photoionized nebula. In this work, we analize and discuss data for a sample of Galactic and extragalactic HII regions where this abundance discrepancy has been determined. We find that the abundance discrepancy factor (ADF) is fairly constant and of the order of 2 in all the available sample of HII regions. This is a rather different behaviour than that observed in planetary nebulae, where the ADF shows a much wider range of values. We do not find correlations between the ADF and the O/H, O++/H+ ratios, the ionization degree, Te(High), Te(Low)/ Te(High), FWHM, and the effective temperature of the main ionizing stars within the observational uncertainties. These results indicate that whatever mechanism is producing the abundance discrepancy in HII regions it does not substantially depend on those nebular parameters. On the contrary, the ADF seems to be slightly dependent on the excitation energy, a fact that is consistent with the predictions of the classical temperature fluctuations paradigm. Finally, we obtain that Te values obtained from OII recombination lines in HII regions are in agreement with those obtained from collisionally excited line ratios, a behaviour that is again different from that observed in planetary nebulae. These similar temperature determinations are in contradiction with the predictions of the model based on the presence of chemically inhomogeneous clumps but are consistent with the temperature fluctuations paradigm. We conclude that all the indications suggest that the physical mechanism responsible of the abundance discrepancy in HII regions and planetary nebulae are different.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 9 tables. Accepted for publication in the Ap

The high-excitation planetary nebulae: NGC 3918 and IC 2448

International Ultraviolet Exploration observations of NGC 3918 and IC 2448 are presented. Combining these observations with data in the optical range and computed model structure, the chemical composition for these objects is derived. For NGC 3918 log C = -3.02, log N = -3.61 and log 0 = -3.22; while for IC 2448 log C = -3.44, log N = -81 and log 0 = 3.54

The Oxygen Abundance in the Solar Neighborhood

We present a homogeneous analysis of the oxygen abundance in five H II regions and eight planetary nebulae (PNe) located at distances lower than 2 kpc and with available spectra of high quality. We find that both the collisionally excited lines and recombination lines imply that the PNe are overabundant in oxygen by about 0.2 dex. An explanation that reconciles the oxygen abundances derived with collisionally excited lines for H II regions and PNe with the values found for B-stars, the Sun, and the diffuse ISM requires the presence in H II regions of an organic refractory dust component that is not present in PNe. This dust component has already been invoked to explain the depletion of oxygen in molecular clouds and in the diffuse interstellar medium.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter