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Register a new userAbundances in the Neutral Interstellar Medium of I Zw 18 from FUSE Observations
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A. Aloisi
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We report on new FUSE far-UV spectroscopy of the most metal-poor blue compact dwarf galaxy I Zw 18. The new data represent an improvement over previous FUSE spectra by a factor of 1.7 in the signal-to-noise. Together with a larger spectral coverage (917-1188 angstroms), this allows us to characterize absorption lines in the interstellar medium with unprecedented accuracy. The kinematics averaged over the large sampled region shows no clear evidence of gas inflows or outflows. The H I absorption is interstellar with a column density of 2.2 (+0.6,-0.5} * 10^21 cm^(-2). A conservative 3 sigma upper limit of 5.25 * 10^(14) cm^(-2) is derived for the column density of diffuse H_2. From a simultaneous fitting of metal absorption lines in the interstellar medium, we infer the following abundances: [Fe/H] = -1.76 +/- 0.12, [O/H] = -2.06 +/- 0.28, [Si/H] = -2.09 +/- 0.12, [Ar/H] = -2.27 +/- 0.13, and [N/H] = -2.88 +/- 0.11. This is in general several times lower than in the H II regions. The only exception is iron, whose abundance is the same. The abundance pattern of the interstellar medium suggests ancient star-formation activity with an age of at least a Gyr that enriched the H I phase. Around 470 SNe Ia are required to produce the iron content. A more recent episode that started 10 to several 100 Myr ago is responsible for the additional enrichment of alpha-elements and nitrogen in the H II regions.
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We show that the difference between the Ar and Si relative abundance ratio derived from FUSE absorption spectra and from the HII regions of I Zw 18 is a consequence of the microturbulent analysis applied to the absorption spectra. FUSE observations were performed with a large entrance aperture which fully covered the galaxy. This means that the observed profiles are averaged over the full body of I Zw 18, implying that large-scale velocity fields influence the absorption - line profiles. Taking this into account, we show that the absorption spectra are consistent with the same metal abundances as those derived from the HII regions. It follows that no significant ionization correction as suggested by Izotov and collaborators to describe metal contents in damped Ly-alpha systems (DLA) is required to model abundances in the neutral gas of I Zw 18 (a local DLA system). Using a mesoturbulent approach and applying the generalized radiative transfer equation to the ArI1048 and SiII1020 lines observed by Vidal-Madjar et al., we found that the profiles may be reproduced with log (Ar/Si) ~= - 0.8 and N(SiII) ~= 4 10^{15} cm^{-2}.
We present new results from our survey of diffuse O VI-emitting gas in the interstellar medium with the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE). Background observations obtained since 2005 have yielded eleven new O VI detections of 3-sigma significance, and archival searches have revealed two more. An additional 15 sight lines yield interesting upper limits. Combined with previous results, these observations reveal the large-scale structure of the O VI-bearing gas in the quadrant of the sky centered on the Magellanic Clouds. The most prominent feature is a layer of low-velocity O VI emission extending more than 70 degrees from the Galactic plane. At low latitudes (|b| < 30 degrees), the emission comes from narrow, high-density conductive interfaces in the local ISM. At high latitudes, the emission is from extended, low-density regions in the Galactic halo. We also detect O VI emission from the interface region of the Magellanic System, a structure recently identified from H I observations. These are the first detections of emission from high-ionization species in the Magellanic System outside of the Clouds themselves.
Ultraviolet and 21-cm observations suggest that the extremely low-metallicity galaxy, I Zw 18, is a stream-fed galaxy containing a pocket of pristine stars responsible for producing nebular He II recombination emission observed in I Zw18-NW. Far-UV spectra by Hubble/COS and the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) make this suggestion conclusive by demonstrating that the spectrum of I Zw 18-NW shows no metal lines like O VI 1032, 1038 of comparable ionization as the He II recombination emission.
With a metallicity of 12 + Log(O/H) $approx$ 7.1-7.2, I Zw 18 is a canonical low-metallicity blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy. A growing number of BCDs, including I Zw 18, have been found to host strong, narrow-lined, nebular He II ($lambda$4686) emission with enhanced intensities compared to H$beta$ (e.g., He II($lambda$4686)/H$beta$ > 1%). We present new observations of I Zw 18 using the Keck Cosmic Web Imager. These observations reveal two nebular He II emission regions (or He III regions) northwest and southeast of the He III region in the galaxys main body investigated in previous studies. All regions exhibit He II($lambda4686$)/Hbeta greater than 2%. The two newly resolved He III regions lie along an axis that intercepts the position of I Zw 18s ultraluminous X-ray (ULX) source. We explore whether the ULX could power the two He III regions via shock activity and/or beamed X-ray emission. We find no evidence of shocks from the gas kinematics. If the ULX powers the two regions, the X-ray emission would need to be beamed. Another potential explanation is that a class of early-type nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet stars with low winds could power the two He III regions, in which case the alignment with the ULX would be coincidental.
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) colour - magnitude diagrams in B, V and R along with long-slit Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) spectrophotometric data are used to investigate the evolutionary status of the nearby blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy I Zw 18. We find that the distance to I Zw 18 should be as high as 20 Mpc, twice the previously accepted distance, to be consistent with existing observational data on the galaxy: colour-magnitude diagrams, the high ionization state of the gas and presence of WR stars in the main body, and the ionization state of the C component. The spectral energy distribution (SED) of the main body of I Zw 18 is consistent with that of a stellar population with age < 5 Myr. However, the presence of large-scale shells observed around the main body suggests that star formation began ~ 20 Myr at the NW end and propagated in the SE direction. Our analysis of colour-magnitude diagrams and of the spectral energy distribution of the C component implies that star formation in this component started < 100 Myr ago at the NW end, propagated to the SE and stopped ~ 15 Myr ago. Thus, I Zw 18 is likely to be one of the youngest nearby extragalactic objects.
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