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Register a new userThe Effects of Diffuse Ionized Gas and Spatial Resolution on Metallicity Gradients: TYPHOON Two-Dimensional Spectrophotometry of M83
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We present a systematic study of the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) in M83 and its effects on the measurement of metallicity gradients at varying resolution scales. Using spectrophotometric data cubes of M83 obtained at the 2.5m duPont telescope at Las Campanas Observatory as part of the TYPHOON program, we separate the HII regions from the DIG using the [SII]/H$alpha$ ratio, HIIphot (HII finding algorithm) and the H$alpha$ surface brightness. We find that the contribution to the overall H$alpha$ luminosity is approximately equal for the HII and DIG regions. The data is then rebinned to simulate low-resolution observations at varying resolution scales from 41 pc up to 1005 pc. Metallicity gradients are measured using five different metallicity diagnostics at each resolution. We find that all metallicity diagnostics used are affected by the inclusion of DIG to varying degrees. We discuss the reasons of why the metallicity gradients are significantly affected by DIG using the HII dominance and emission line ratio radial profiles. We find that applying the [SII]/H$alpha$ cut will provide a closer estimate of the true metallicity gradient up to a resolution of 1005 pc for all metallicity diagnostics used in this study.
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We present the first kinematic study of extraplanar diffuse ionized gas (eDIG) in the nearby, face-on disk galaxy M83 using optical emission-line spectroscopy from the Robert Stobie Spectrograph on the Southern African Large Telescope. We use a Markov Chain Monte Carlo method to decompose the [NII]$lambdalambda$6548, 6583, H$alpha$, and [SII]$lambdalambda$6717, 6731 emission lines into HII region and diffuse ionized gas emission. Extraplanar, diffuse gas is distinguished by its emission-line ratios ([NII]$lambda$6583/H$alpha gtrsim 1.0$) and its rotational velocity lag with respect to the disk ($Delta v = -24$ km/s in projection). With interesting implications for isotropy, the velocity dispersion of the diffuse gas, $sigma = 96$ km/s, is a factor of a few higher in M83 than in the Milky Way and nearby, edge-on disk galaxies. The turbulent pressure gradient is sufficient to support the eDIG layer in dynamical equilibrium at an electron scale height of $h_{z} = 1$ kpc. However, this dynamical equilibrium model must be finely tuned to reproduce the rotational velocity lag. There is evidence of local bulk flows near star-forming regions in the disk, suggesting that the dynamical state of the gas may be intermediate between a dynamical equilibrium and a galactic fountain flow. As one of the first efforts to study eDIG kinematics in a face-on galaxy, this study demonstrates the feasibility of characterizing the radial distribution, bulk velocities, and vertical velocity dispersions in low-inclination systems.
We investigate the impact of the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) on abundance determinations in star-forming (SF) galaxies. The DIG is characterised using the H$alpha$ equivalent width ($W_{text{H}alpha}$). From a set of 1,409 SF galaxies from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) survey, we calculate the fractional contribution of the DIG to several emission lines using high-$S/N$ data from SF spaxels (instead of using noisy emission-lines in DIG-dominated spaxels). Our method is applicable to spectra with observed $W_{text{H}alpha} gtrsim 10$ angstroms (which are not dominated by DIG emission). Since the DIG contribution depends on galactocentric distance, we provide DIG-correction formulae for both entire galaxies and single aperture spectra. Applying those to a sample of $,> 90,000$ SF galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we find the following. (1) The effect of the DIG on strong-line abundances depends on the index used. It is negligible for the ([O III]/H$beta$)/([N II]/H$alpha$) index, but reaches $sim 0.1$ dex at the high-metallicity end for [N II]/H$alpha$. (2) This result is based on the $sim$kpc MaNGA resolution, so the real effect of the DIG is likely greater. (3) We revisit the mass-metallicity-star formation rate (SFR) relation by correcting for the DIG contribution in both abundances and SFR. The effect of DIG removal is more prominent at higher stellar masses. Using the [N II]/H$alpha$ index, O/H increases with SFR at high stellar mass, contrary to previous claims.
Estimates of gas-phase abundances based on strong-line methods have been calibrated for H~{scshape ii} regions. Those methods ignore any contribution from the diffuse ionized gas (DIG), which shows enhanced collisional-to-recombination line ratios in comparison to H~{scshape ii} regions of the same metallicity. Applying strong line methods whilst ignoring the role of the DIG thus systematically overestimates metallicities. Using integral field spectroscopy data, we show how to correct for the DIG contribution and how it biases the mass--metallicity--star formation rate relation.
Diffuse Ionized Gas (DIG) is prevalent in star-forming galaxies. Using a sample of 365 nearly face-on star-forming galaxies observed by MaNGA, we demonstrate how DIG in star-forming galaxies impacts the measurements of emission line ratios, hence the interpretation of diagnostic diagrams and gas-phase metallicity measurements. At fixed metallicity, DIG-dominated low Halpha surface brightness regions display enhanced [SII]/Halpha, [NII]/Halpha, [OII]/Hbeta, and [OI]/Halpha. The gradients in these line ratios are determined by metallicity gradients and Halpha surface brightness. In line ratio diagnostic diagrams, contamination by DIG moves HII regions towards composite or LI(N)ER-like regions. A harder ionizing spectrum is needed to explain DIG line ratios. Leaky HII region models can only shift line ratios slightly relative to HII region models, and thus fail to explain the composite/LI(N)ER line ratios displayed by DIG. Our result favors ionization by evolved stars as a major ionization source for DIG with LI(N)ER-like emission. DIG can significantly bias the measurement of gas metallicity and metallicity gradients derived using strong-line methods. Metallicities derived using N2O2 are optimal because they exhibit the smallest bias and error. Using O3N2, R23, N2=[NII]/Halpha, and N2S2Halpha (Dopita et al. 2016) to derive metallicities introduces bias in the derived metallicity gradients as large as the gradient itself. The strong-line method of Blanc et al. (2015; IZI hereafter) cannot be applied to DIG to get an accurate metallicity because it currently contains only HII region models which fail to describe the DIG.
We carry out a comparative analysis of the metallicities from the stellar, neutral-gas, and ionized-gas components in the metal-rich spiral galaxy M83. We analyze spectroscopic observations taken with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) and the Very Large Telescope (VLT). We detect a clear depletion of the HI gas, as observed from the HI column densities in the nuclear region of this spiral galaxy. We find column densities of log[$N$(HI) cm$^{-2}$] $<$ 20.0 at galactocentric distances of $<$ 0.18 kpc, in contrast to column densities of log[$N$(HI) cm$^{-2}$] $sim$ 21.0 in the galactic disk, a trend observed in other nearby spiral galaxies. We measure a metallicity gradient of $-$0.03 $pm$ 0.01 dex kpc$^{-1}$ for the ionized gas, comparable to the metallicity gradient of a local benchmark of 49 nearby star-forming galaxies of $-$0.026 $pm$ 0.002 dex kpc$^{-1}$. Our co-spatial metallicity comparison of the multi-phase gas and stellar populations shows excellent agreement outside of the nucleus of the galaxy hinting at a scenario where the mixing of newly synthesized metals from the most massive stars in the star clusters takes longer than their lifetimes ($sim$10 Myr). Finally, our work shows that caution must be taken when studying the metallicity gradient of the neutral-gas component in star-forming galaxies, since this can be strongly biased, as these environments can be dominated by molecular gas. In these regions the typical metallicity tracers can provide inaccurate abundances as they may trace both the neutral- and molecular-gas components.
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