Bibcode
Pérez-Montero, E.; Vílchez, J. M.; Cedrés, B.; Hägele, G. F.; Mollá, M.; Kehrig, C.; Díaz, A. I.; García-Benito, R.; Martín-Gordón, D.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 532, id.A141
Advertised on:
8
2011
Journal
Citations
56
Refereed citations
47
Description
Context. The oxygen and nitrogen-to-oxygen abundances relation is
characterized by a plateau around log(N/O) = -1.6 at metallicities lower
than 12+log(O/H) ~ 8.25. However, there is a subset of blue compact
dwarf galaxies (BCDs) with unexpectedly high N/O values. Aims: We
want to study the spatial distribution of the physical properties and of
oxygen and nitrogen abundances in three BCDs (HS 0128+2832, HS
0837+4717, and Mrk 930) with a reported excess of N/O in order to
investigate the nature of this excess and, particularly, its association
with Wolf-Rayet (WR) stars. Methods: We observed these BCDs by
using PMAS integral field spectroscopy in the optical spectral range
(3700-6900 Å) and mapping the brightest emission lines, hence
their interstellar medium (ISM) physical-chemical properties (reddening,
excitation, electron density and temperature, and O and N chemical
abundances), using both the direct method and appropriate strong-line
methods. We made a statistical analysis of the resulting distributions
and compared them with the integrated properties of the galaxies.
Results: Outer parts of the three galaxies are placed in the "AGN-zone"
of the [Nii]/Hα vs. [Oiii]/Hβ diagnostic diagram most likely
due to a high N/O combined with the excitation structure in these
regions. From the statistical analysis, it is assumed that a certain
property can be considered as spatially homogeneous (or uniform) if a
normal Gaussian function fits its distribution in several regions of the
galaxy. Moreover, a disagreement between the integrated properties and
the mean values of the distribution usually appears when a Gaussian does
not fit the corresponding distribution. We find that 1) for HS
0128+2832, only the N/O ratio as derived from the direct method is
uniform; 2) for HS 0837+4717, all properties are uniform; and 3) for Mrk
930, the uniformity is found for all parameters, except for electron
density and reddening. The rotation curve, the Hα map, and UV
images reveal a perturbed morphology and possible interacting processes
in Mrk 930. Finally, if the N/O is constant on spatial scales of several
kpc, as our analysis indicates, we conclude that there are not enough WR
stars estimated from spectroscopy to pollute the ISM and to produce the
observed N/O excess in these objects.