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Register a new userCharacterizing Extreme Emission Line Galaxies I: A Four-Zone Ionization Model for Very-High-Ionization Emission
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Stellar population models produce radiation fields that ionize oxygen up to O+2, defining the limit of standard HII region models (<54.9 eV). Yet, some extreme emission line galaxies, or EELGs, have surprisingly strong emission originating from much higher ionization potentials. We present UV-HST/COS and optical-LBT/MODS spectra of two nearby EELGs that have very-high-ionization emission lines (e.g., HeII 1640,4686 CIV 1548,1550, [FeV] 4227, [ArIV] 4711,4740). We define a 4-zone ionization model that is augmented by a very-high-ionization zone, as characterized by He+2 (>54.4 eV). The 4-zone model has little to no effect on the measured total nebular abundances, but does change the interpretation of other EELG properties: we measure steeper central ionization gradients, higher volume-averaged ionization parameters, and higher central T_e, n_e, and logU values. Traditional 3-zone estimates of the ionization parameter can under-estimate the average log U by up to 0.5 dex. Additionally, we find a model-independent dichotomy in the abundance patterns, where the alpha/H-abundances are consistent but N/H, C/H, and Fe/H are relatively deficient, suggesting these EELGs are alpha/Fe-enriched by >3 times. However, there still is a high-energy ionizing photon production problem (HEIP^3). Even for such alpha/Fe-enrichment and very-high log Us, photoionization models cannot reproduce the very-high-ionization emission lines observed in EELGs.
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We propose a new diagram, the Kinematic-Excitation diagram (KEx diagram), which uses the [OIII]/Hbeta line ratio and the [OIII]5007 emission line width (sigma_{[OIII]}) to diagnose the ionization source and physical properties of the Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) and the star-forming galaxies (SFGs). The KEx diagram is a suitable tool to classify emission-line galaxies (ELGs) at intermediate redshift because it uses only the [OIII]5007 and Hbeta emission lines. We use the SDSS DR7 main galaxy sample and the Baldwin-Phillips-Terlevich (BPT) diagnostic to calibrate the diagram at low redshift. We find that the diagram can be divided into 3 regions: one occupied mainly by the pure AGNs (KEx-AGN region), one dominated by composite galaxies (KEx-composite region), and one contains mostly SFGs (KEx-SFG region). AGNs are separated from SFGs in this diagram mainly because they preferentially reside in luminous and massive galaxies and have high [OIII]/Hbeta. The separation of AGN from star-forming galaxies is even cleaner thanks to the additional 0.15/0.12 dex offset in [OIII] line width at fixed luminosity/stellar mass. We apply the KEx diagram to 7,866 galaxies at 0.3 < z < 1 in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey, and compare it to an independent X-ray classification scheme using Chandra observation. X-ray AGNs are mostly located in the KEx-AGN region while X-ray SFGs are mostly located in the KEx-SFG region. Almost all of Type1 AGNs lie in the KEx-AGN region. These confirm the reliability of this classification diagram for emission line galaxies at intermediate redshift. At z~2, the demarcation line between star-forming galaxies and AGNs should shift 0.3 dex higher in sigma_{[OIII]} to account for evolution.
Observations of high-redshift galaxies ($z >$ 5) have shown that these galaxies have extreme emission lines with equivalent widths much larger than their local star-forming counterparts. Extreme emission line galaxies (EELGs) in the nearby universe are likely analogues to galaxies during the Epoch of Reionization and provide nearby laboratories to understand the physical processes important to the early universe. We use HST/COS and LBT/MODS spectra to study two nearby EELGs, J104457 and J141851. The FUV spectra indicate that these two galaxies contain stellar populations with ages $< sim$ 10 Myr and metallicities $leq$ 0.15 Z$_odot$. We use photoionization modeling to compare emission lines from models of single-age bursts of star-formation to observed emission lines and find that the single-age bursts do not reproduce high-ionization lines including [O III] or very-high ionization lines like He II or [O IV]. Photoionization modeling using the stellar populations fit from the UV continuum similarly are not capable of reproducing the emission lines from the very-high ionization zone. We add a blackbody to the stellar populations fit from the UV continuum to model the necessary high-energy photons to reproduce the very-high ionization lines of He II and [O IV]. We find that we need a blackbody of 80,000 K and $sim$60-70% of the luminosity from the young stellar population to reproduce the very-high ionization lines while simultaneously reproducing the low- intermediate-, and high-ionization emission lines. Our self-consistent model of the ionizing spectra of two nearby EELGs indicates the presence of a previously unaccounted-for source of hard ionizing photons in reionization analogues.
The flux ratios of high-ionization lines are commonly assumed to indicate the metallicity of the broad emission line region in luminous quasars. When accounting for the variation in their kinematic profiles, we show that the NV/CIV, (SiIV+OIV])/CIV and NV/Lya line ratios do not vary as a function of the quasar continuum luminosity, black hole mass, or accretion rate. Using photoionization models from CLOUDY , we further show that the observed changes in these line ratios can be explained by emission from gas with solar abundances, if the physical conditions of the emitting gas are allowed to vary over a broad range of densities and ionizing fluxes. The diversity of broad line emission in quasar spectra can be explained by a model with emission from two kinematically distinct regions, where the line ratios suggest that these regions have either very different metallicity or density. Both simplicity and current galaxy evolution models suggest that near-solar abundances, with parts of the spectrum forming in high-density clouds, are more likely. Within this paradigm, objects with stronger outflow signatures show stronger emission from gas which is denser and located closer to the ionizing source, at radii consistent with simulations of line-driven disc-winds. Studies using broad-line ratios to infer chemical enrichment histories should consider changes in density and ionizing flux before estimating metallicities.
Outflows are a pervasive feature of mechanical feedback from super star clusters (SSC) in starburst galaxies, playing a fundamental role in galaxy evolution. Observations are now starting to confirm that outflows can undergo catastrophic cooling, suppressing adiabatic superwinds. Here we present a suite of one-dimensional, hydrodynamic simulations that study the ionization structure of these outflows and the resulting line emission generated by the cooling gas. We use the non-equilibrium atomic chemistry package within MAIHEM, our modified version of FLASH, which evolves the ionization state of the gas and computes the total cooling rate on an ion-by-ion basis. We find that catastrophically cooling models produce strong nebular line emission compared to adiabatic outflows. We also show that such models exhibit non-equilibrium conditions, thereby generating more highly ionized states than equivalent equilibrium models. When including photoionization from the parent SSC, catastrophically cooling models show strong C IV {lambda}1549 and O VI {lambda}1037 emission. For density bounded photoionization, He II {lambda}1640, {lambda}4686, C III] {lambda}1908, Si IV {lambda}1206, and Si III {lambda}1400 are also strongly enhanced. These lines are seen in extreme starbursts where catastrophic cooling is likely to occur, suggesting that they may serve as diagnostics of such conditions. The higher ionization generated by these flows may help to explain line emission that cannot be attributed to SSC photoionization alone.
A tight relation between the [CII]158$mu$m line luminosity and star formation rate is measured in local galaxies. At high redshift ($z>5$), though, a much larger scatter is observed, with a considerable (15-20%) fraction of the outliers being [CII]-deficient. Moreover, the [CII] surface brightness ($Sigma_{rm CII}$) of these sources is systematically lower than expected from the local relation. To clarify the origin of such [CII]-deficiency we have developed an analytical model that fits local [CII] data, and has been validated against radiative transfer simulations performed with CLOUDY. The model predicts an overall increase of $Sigma_{rm CII}$ with the surface star formation rate ($Sigma_*$). However, for $Sigma_* > 1 M_odot~{rm yr}^{-1}~{rm kpc}^{-2}$, $Sigma_{rm CII}$ saturates. We conclude that underluminous [CII] systems can result from a combination of three factors: (a) large upward deviations from the Kennicutt-Schmidt relation ($kappa_s gg 1$), parameterized by the burstiness parameter $kappa_s$; (b) low metallicity; (c) low gas density, at least for the most extreme sources (e.g. CR7). Observations of [CII] emission alone cannot break the degeneracy among the above three parameters; this requires additional information coming from other emission lines (e.g. [OIII]88$mu$m, CIII]1909A, CO lines). Simple formulae are given to interpret available data for low and high-$z$ galaxies.
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