Bibcode
Pilyugin, L. S.; Mattsson, L.; Vílchez, J. M.; Cedrés, B.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 398, Issue 1, pp. 485-496.
Advertised on:
9
2009
Citations
43
Refereed citations
37
Description
The electron temperatures of high-metallicity [12 + log(O/H) > 8.2]
HII regions have been studied. The empirical flux-flux relations which
express the nebular-to-auroral [OIII] line ratio Q3,O (as
well as the nebular-to-auroral [OII] line ratio Q2,O, and the
nebular-to-auroral [NII] line ratio Q2,N) in terms of the
nebular R3 and R2 line fluxes in spectra of
high-metallicity HII regions are derived, and the electron temperatures
t3,O, t2,O and t2,N in a number of
extragalactic HII regions are also determined. Furthermore, the
t2- t3 diagram is discussed. It is found that
there is a one-to-one correspondence between t2 and
t3 electron temperatures for HII regions with a weak nebular
R3 lines (logR3 <~ 0.5). The derived
t2,N-t3,O relation for these HII regions is
similar to commonly used t2-t3 relations. The HII
regions with a strong nebular R3 line flux (logR3
>~ 0.5) do not follow this relation. A discrepancy between
t2,N and t2,O temperatures is found, being the
t2,N temperatures systematically lower than the
t2,O ones. The differences are small at low electron
temperatures, and increase with increasing electron temperatures up to
10 per cent at t = 1. The uncertainties in the atomic data may be the
cause of this discrepancy.