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Authors
Y. I. Izotov
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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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We report the discovery of broad Wolf-Rayet emission lines in the Multiple Mirror Telescope (MMT) spectrum of the NW component of I Zw 18, the lowest-metallicity blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy known. Two broad Wolf-Rayet (W-R) bumps at the wavelengths $lambda$4650 and $lambda$5800 are detected indicating the presence of WN and WC stars. The total numbers of WN and WC stars inferred from the luminosities of the broad He II $lambda$4686 and C IV $lambda$5808 lines are equal to 17(+/-)4 and 5(+/-)2, respectively. The W-R to O stars number ratio is equal to about 0.02, in satisfactory agreement with the value predicted by massive stellar evolution models with enhanced mass loss rates. The WC stars in the northwest component of I Zw 18 can be responsible for the presence of the nebular He II $lambda$4686 emission line, however the observed intensity of this line is several times larger than model predictions, and other sources of ionizing radiation at wavelengths shorter than 228AA are necessary.
Ultraviolet and 21-cm observations suggest that the extremely low-metallicity galaxy, I Zw 18, is a stream-fed galaxy containing a pocket of pristine stars responsible for producing nebular He II recombination emission observed in I Zw18-NW. Far-UV spectra by Hubble/COS and the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE) make this suggestion conclusive by demonstrating that the spectrum of I Zw 18-NW shows no metal lines like O VI 1032, 1038 of comparable ionization as the He II recombination emission.
Long-slit Keck II, 4m Kitt Peak, and 4.5m MMT spectrophotometric data are used to investigate the stellar population and the evolutionary status of I Zw 18C, the faint C component of the nearby blue compact dwarf galaxy I Zw 18. Hydrogen H$alpha$ and H$beta$ emission lines are detected in the spectra of I Zw 18C, implying that ionizing massive stars are present. High signal-to-noise Keck II spectra of different regions in I Zw 18C reveal H$gamma$, H$delta$ and higher order hydrogen lines in absorption. Several techniques are used to constrain the age of the stellar population in I Zw 18C. Ages derived from two different methods, one based on the equivalent widths of the H$alpha$, H$beta$ emission lines and the other on H$gamma$, H$delta$ absorption lines are consistent with a 15 Myr instantaneous burst model. We find that a small extinction in the range $A_V$ = 0.20 -- 0.65 mag is needed to fit the observed spectral energy distribution of I Zw 18C with that model. In the case of constant star formation, all observed properties are consistent with stars forming continuously between ~ 10 Myr and < 100 Myr ago. We use all available observational constraints for I Zw 18C, including those obtained from Hubble Space Telescope color-magnitude diagrams, to argue that the distance to I Zw 18 should be as high as ~ 15 Mpc. The deep spectra also reveal extended ionized gas emission around I Zw 18. H$alpha$ emission is detected as far as 30 from it. To a B surface brightness limit of ~ 27 mag arcsec$^{-2}$ we find no observational evidence for extended stellar emission in the outermost regions, at distances > 15 from I Zw 18.
IZw18, ever since regarded as the prototypical blue compact dwarf (BCD) galaxy, is, quite ironically, the most atypical BCD known. This is because its large exponential low-surface brightness envelope is not due to an old stellar host but entirely due to extended nebular emission (ne) (Papaderos et al. 2002; P02). We study IZw18 and IZw18C down to an unprecedently faint surface brightness level using HST ACS data. We argue that the properties of IZw18C can be consistently accounted for by propagating star formation over the past ~100 Myr, in combination with stellar diffusion and the associated radial stellar mass filtering effect (P02). As for IZw18, we find that ne extends out to ~16 stellar scale lengths and provides at least 1/3 of the total optical emission. The case of IZw18 suggests caution in studies of distant galaxies in dominant stages of their evolution, rapidly assembling their stellar mass at high specific star formation rates (SSFRs). It calls attention to the fact that ne is not necessarily cospatial with the underlying ionizing and non-ionizing stellar background, neither has to scale with its surface density. The prodigious energetic output during dominant phases of galaxy evolution may result in large exponential ne envelopes, extending much beyond the still compact stellar component, just like in IZw18. Therefore, the morphological paradigm of IZw18, while probably unique in the nearby Universe, may be ubiquitous among high-SSFR galaxies at high redshift. Using IZw18 as reference, we show that extended ne may introduce substantial observational biases and significantly affect fundamental galaxy relations. Among others, we show that the surface brightness profiles of distant morphological analogs to IZw18 may be barely distinguishable from Sersic profiles with an exponent 2<n<5, thus mimicking the profiles of massive galaxy spheroids. (abridged)
We present new WFPC2 narrow band imaging of the blue compact dwarf galaxy I Zw 18, which is host to the lowest-metallicity HII regions known. Images at H-alpha and H-beta are combined with archival broad band images to allow the study of the ionized gas distribution and morphology. Analysis of the H-alpha/H-beta flux ratio reveals significant enhancements in some areas of both the ``Northwest and ``Southeast regions of the galaxy, with ratios elevated to levels as high as 3.4. The H-alpha/H-beta ratio varies considerably with position throughout the galaxy. Comparing this distribution with the stellar distribution indicates that the regions of enhanced H-alpha/H-beta ratio are not due to the effects of either collisional excitation or underlying stellar absorption, and therefore are most likely interpreted as the presence of dust. This dust has an estimated mass of (2-5)x10^3 solar masses, which is consistent with the IRAS far-IR non-detection. Under the assumption that dust traces the presence of molecular gas, these results suggest that the molecular component of the ISM of I Zw 18, which is needed to fuel its active star formation, is also very clumpy. Such a distribution would be consistent with the recent FUSE non-detections of diffuse H_2.
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