The delayed contribution of low and intermediate mass stars to chemical galactic enrichment: An analytical approach

We find a new analytical solution for the chemical evolution equations, taking into account the delayed contribution of all low and intermediate mass stars (LIMS) as one representative star that enriches the interstellar medium.This solution is built only for star formation rate proportional to the gas mass in a closed box model. We obtain increasing C/O and N/O ratios with increasing O/H, behavior impossible to match with the Instantaneous Recycling Approximation (IRA). Our results, obtained by two analytical equations, are very similar to those found by numerical models that consider the lifetimes of each star. This delayed model reproduces successfully the evolution of C/O-O/H and Y-O relations in the solar vicinity. This analytical approximation is a useful tool to study the chemical evolution of elements produced by LIMS when a galactic chemical evolutionary code is not available.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figures, to be published in the RevMexAA in October 200

Chemical consequences of low star formation rates: stochastically sampling the IMF

When estimating the abundances which result from a given star formation event, it is customary to treat the IMF as a series of weight factors to be applied to the stellar yields, as a function of mass, implicitly assuming one is dealing with an infinite population. However, when the stellar population is small, the standard procedure would imply the inclusion of fractional numbers of stars at certain masses. We study the effects of small number statistics on the resulting abundances by performing an statistical sampling of the IMF to form a stellar population out of discrete numbers of stars. A chemical evolution code then follows the evolution of the population, and traces the resulting abundances. The process is repeated to obtain an statistical distribution of the resulting abundances and their evolution. We explore the manner in which different elements are affected, and how different abundances converge to the infinite population limit as the total mass increases. We include a discussion of our results in the context of dwarf spheroidal galaxies and show the recently reported internal dispersions in abundance ratios for dSph galaxies might be partly explained through the stochastic effects introduced by a low star formation rate, which can account for dispersions of over 2 dex in [C/O], [N/O], [C/Fe], [N/Fe] and [O/Fe].Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRA

Chemical behavior of the Dwarf Irregular Galaxy NGC 6822. Its PN and HII region abundances

We aim to derive the chemical behavior of a significant sample of PNe and HII regions in the irregular galaxy NGC 6822 The selected objects are distributed in different zones of the galaxy. Due to the faintness of PNe and HII regions in NGC 6822, to gather spectroscopic data with large telescopes is necessary. We obtained a well suited sample of spectra by employing VLT-FORS 2 and Gemini-GMOS spectrographs. Ionic and total abundances are calculated for the objects where electron temperatures can be determined through the detection of [OIII] \lambda 4363 or/and [NII] \lambda 5755 lines. A "simple" chemical evolution model has been developed and the observed data are used to compute a model for NGC 6822 in order to infer a preliminary chemical history in this galaxy. Confident determinations of He, O, N, Ne, S and Ar abundances were derived for a sample of 11 PNe and one HII region. We confirm that the present ISM is chemically homogeneous, at least in the central 2 kpc of the galaxy, showing a value 12+log O/H = 8.06$\pm$0.04. From the abundance pattern of PNe, we identified two populations: a group of young PNe with abundances similar to HII regions and a group of older objects with abundances a factor of two lower. A couple of extreme Type I PNe were found. No third dredge-up O enrichement was detected in PNe of this galaxy. The abundance determinations allow us to discuss the chemical behavior of the present and past ISM in NGC 6822. Our preliminary chemical evolution model predicts that an important gas-mass lost occurred during the first 5.3 Gyr, that no star higher than 40 M$_\odot$ was formed, and that 1% of all 3-15 M$_\odot$ stars became binary systems progenitors to SNIa.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures and 4 tables. A&A, Accepted 13/06/200

New Evolutionary Synthesis code. An application to the irregular galaxy NGC 1560

We have developed a new evolutionary synthesis code, which incorporates the output from chemical evolution models. We compare results of this new code with other published codes, and we apply it to the irregular galaxy NGC 1560 using sophisticated chemical evolution models. The code makes important contributions in two areas: a) the building of synthetic populations with time-dependent star formation rates and stellar populations of different metallicities; b) the extension of the set of stellar tracks from the Geneva group by adding the AGB phases for $m_i/M_\odot \geq 0.8$ as well as the very low mass stars. Our code predicts spectra, broad band colors, and Lick indices by using a spectra library, which cover a more complete grid of stellar parameters. The application of the code with the chemical models to the galaxy NGC 1560 constrain the star formation age for its stellar population around 10.0 Gy.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figures, submited to A&