We analyze the distribution of the interstellar matter in the environs of the \hii region Gum 31, excited by the open cluster NGC 3324, located in the complex Carina region, with the aim of investigating the action of the massive stars on the surrounding neutral material. We use 21cm-line data, radio continuum images at 0.843, 2.4 and 4.9 GHz, $^{12}${\bf CO(1-0)} observations, and IRAS and MSX infrared data. Adopting a distance of 3 kpc for the \hii\ region and the ionizing cluster, we have derived an electron density of 33$\pm$3 cm$^{-3}$ and an ionized mass of (3.3$\pm$1.1)$\times10^3$ M$_{\odot}$ based on the radio continuum data at 4.9 GHz. The \hi 21-cm line images revealed an \hi shell surrounding the H {\sc ii} region. The \hi structure is 10.0$\pm$1.7 pc in radius, has a neutral mass of 1500$\pm$500 M$_{\odot}$, and is expanding at 11 km s$^{-1}$. The associated molecular gas amounts to (1.5$\pm$0.5)$\times10^5$ M$_{\odot}$, being its volume density of about 500 cm^{-3}. This molecular material probably represents the remains of the cloud where the young open cluster NGC 3324 was born. The distributions of the ionized and molecular material, along with that of the emission in the MSX band A suggest that a photodissociation region has developed at the interface between the ionized and molecular gas. We conclude that either the massive stars in the open cluster have weak stellar winds or the stellar winds have blown during a very short period of time to create an interstellar bubble in an interstellar medium as dense as observed. IRAS, MSX, and 2MASS point sources projected onto the molecular envelope are compatible with protostellar candidates, showing the presence star forming regions. The expansion of the \hii region has triggered stellar formation in the molecular shell.
We have observed extended emission physically associated with 15 out of 16 UC HII regions with large ratios of single-dish to VLA fluxes. We discuss their implications for the age problem of UC HII regions and the evolution of HII regions.
We have carried out 21 cm radio continuum observations of 16 UC HII regions using the VLA (D-array) in search of associated extended emission. We have also observed H76$_α$ recombination line towards all the sources and He76$_α$ line at the positions with strong H76$_α$ line emission. The UC HII regions have simple morphologies and large (>10) ratios of single-dish to VLA fluxes. Extended emission was detected towards all the sources. The extended emission consists of one to several compact components and a diffuse extended envelope. All the UC HII regions but two are located in the compact co…
We review some recent observational results on the properties of ultracompact HII regions, in particular the presence of extended continuum emission surrounding ultracompact sources and the discovery of a new class of so-called ``Hypercompact'' HII regions. In addition, we discuss recent attempts to probe the density structure within UC HII regions using the technique of spectral index analysis.
We resolve the kinematic distance ambiguity for 266 inner Galaxy HII regions out of a sample of 291 using existing HI and 13CO sky surveys. Our sample contains all HII regions with measured radio recombination line (RRL) emission over the extent of the 13CO Boston University-Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory Galactic Ring Survey (18 deg, < l < 55 deg. and |b| < 1) and contains ultra compact, compact, and diffuse HII regions. We use two methods for resolving the distance ambiguity for each HII region: HI emission/absorption (HIEA) and HI self-absorption (HISA). We find that the HIEA and …
CCD observations in V, I and H$_α$ for NGC 3389 are used to present photometry of 61 HII regions. Their $α$ and $δ$ positions, diameters and their absolute luminosities have been determined. The luminosity and size distribution functions of the HII regions in NGC 3389 are discussed.
We propose two statistical methods to derive oxygen abundances in HII regions and star forming galaxies and calibrate them with a sample of several hundred giant HII regions in spiral and blue compact galaxies as well as of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We show the advantages of our new abundance indicators over previous ones.
We carried out 13CO J=1-0, CS, and C34S J=2-1 and J=3-2 line observations of molecular clouds associated with 16 ultracompact (UC) HII regions with extended envelopes. The molecular clouds are the ones that give birth to rich stellar clusters and/or very massive (O7-O4) stars. Our data show that the clouds are very clumpy and of irregular morphology. They usually have much larger masses, velocity dispersions, and fractions of dense gas than molecular clouds that form early B or late O stars. This is compatible with earlier findings that more massive stars form in more massive cores. 13CO cores…
We present a detailed model capable of explaining quantitatively the temperature fluctuations observed in luminous, large HII regions. The model is based on two assumptions which we justify on the basis of observations: that the major fraction of the hydrogen in the clouds that form the HII regions is not photoionized and is essentially HI, this HII is lightly ionized by fluxes of low energy cosmic rays (CR) produced by processes originating in the hot stars which illuminate the regions.
Spinning dust appears to be the best explanation for the anomalous emission that has been observed at $\sim 10-60$ GHz. One of the best examples of spinning dust comes from a HII region in the Perseus molecular cloud. Observations of other HII regions also show tentative evidence for excess emission at frequencies $\sim 30$ GHz, although at lower emissivity levels. A new detection of excess emission at 31 GHz in the HII region RCW175 has been made. The most plausible explanation again comes from spinning dust. HII regions are a good place to look for spinning dust as long as accurate radio dat…
Here we present a brief overview of UC HII regions with EE (UC HII+EE) including our most recent effort aimed at searching for UC HII regions associated with extended emission.
The introduction of low-frequency radio arrays over the coming decade is expected to revolutionize the study of the reionization epoch. Observation of the contrast in redshifted 21cm emission between a large HII region and the surrounding neutral IGM will be the simplest and most easily interpreted signature. We find that an instrument like the planned Mileura Widefield Array Low-Frequency Demonstrator (LFD) will be able to obtain good signal to noise on HII regions around the most luminous quasars, and determine some gross geometric properties, e.g. whether the HII region is spherical or coni…
We present an analysis of the integrated Halpha emission line profiles for the HII region population of the spiral galaxies NGC 1530, NGC 6951 and NGC 3359. We show that 70% of the line profiles show two or three Gaussian components. The relations between the Halpha luminosity and non-thermal line width for the HII regions of the three galaxies are studied and compared with the relation found taken all the HII regions of the three galaxies as a single distribution. A clearer envelope in non-thermal line width is found when only those HII regions with non-thermal line width bigger than 13kms ar…
The formation of massive stars may take place at relatively low accretion rates over a long period of time if the accretion can continue past the onset of core hydrogen ignition. The accretion may continue despite the formation of an ionized HII region around the star if the HII region is small enough that the gravitational attraction of the star dominates the thermal pressure of the HII region. The accretion may continue despite radiation pressure acting against dust grains in the molecular gas if the momentum of the accretion flow is sufficient to push the dust grains through a narrow zone o…
We present new observations of IRAS 04000+5052, a Galactic HII region associated with a young stellar cluster and possibly located at the Perseus arm. Contrary to previous claims, we have found that this object is not a compact metal-poor HII region. The electron density and chemical composition of the nebula are similar to those of normal HII regions of the Galactic disk. The radial velocity of the ionized gas coincides with that obtained from CO observations, indicating that the nebula is associated with a molecular cloud. Probably, the ionizing source of the HII region is a Herbig Be star o…
By comparing radial velocities of radio bright compact HII regions with their HI absorption profiles, we discovered expanding shells of neutral hydrogen around them. These shells are revealed by absorption of the radio continuum emission from the HII regions at velocities indicating greater distances than the observed radial velocity. We believe that these shells are shock zones at the outer edge of the expanding ionized region. Additionally we found evidence for a velocity inversion inside the Perseus arm caused by a spiral shock, which results in a deep absorption line in the spectra of comp…
We analyze the statistical properties of the circumnuclear HII regions of a sample of 52 nearby galaxies ($v < 1000km/s) from archival HST/NICMOS H-band and Pa alpha (1.87micron) observations at unprecedented spatial resolutions of between 1 and 30pc. We find HII regions in the central regions of most galaxies, and more than a hundred in 8 galaxies. In contrast to disk HII regions, the physical properties (luminosity and size) of individual circumnuclear HII regions do not vary strongly with the morphological type of the host galaxy, nor does the number of circumnuclear HII regions per unit ar…
A re-analysis of the radio continuum emission from circumnuclear regions of the barred galaxies NGC 1022, 1326 & 4314 is presented. The spatial distributions of Halpha and radio continuum are similar and suggest the existence of several giant HII regions in the circumnuclear zone. The spectral indices of the HII regions, obtained with similar angular resolution and at three different wavelengths, indicate that in all three galaxies, the spectral index, alpha^6_2 >-0.1. This result suggests the existence of giant HII regions with decreasing density gradients. The average density stratifications…
The HII regions around quasars and galaxies at redshifts beyond the epoch of reionisation will provide prime targets for upcoming 21cm campaigns using a new generation of low-frequency radio observatories. Here we show that the boundaries of these HII regions will not be sharp. Rather, the clustering of sources near massive galaxies results in a neutral fraction that rises gradually towards large radii from an interior value near zero. A neutral fraction corresponding to the global background value is typically reached at a distance of 2-5 times the radius of the HII region around the central …
The existence of density-bounded HII regions in spiral galaxies is supported by means of a spectral indicator based on the intensity of the [OI]6300A forbidden line. A grid of photoionization models providing spectral information of density-bounded nebulae is presented in order to test the validity of our indicator. The indicator is applicable to typical observed HII regions with solar or higher metallicities, and for the range of ages observed in normal HII regions. When applying the diagnostic to a large sample of HII regions of spiral galaxies taken from the literature, we find that a fract…
At low radio frequencies (< 100 MHz), classical HII regions may become optically thick (optical depth > 1) and can be observed as discrete absorption regions against the Galactic nonthermal background emission created by Galactic cosmic ray electrons spiraling around magnetic fields. In this work we present 74 MHz observations in the region 26>l>-15, -5<b<5, and report the detection of 92 absorption features associated with known HII regions, and derive the brightness temperature of the Galactic cosmic ray electron synchrotron emission emanating from the column behind these regions. For the 42…
(Abridged) From a new H alpha mosaic image of the complete disc of the spiral galaxy M100, a catalogue is composed listing 1948 individual HII regions. I give details of the data collection and reduction procedure, and of the production of the HII region catalogue. For each HII region, the catalogue gives its position relative to the centre of the galaxy, its deprojected distance to the centre, its radius, and its calibrated luminosity. I present the results of a statistical study of properties of the HII regions. The luminosity function of the complete ensemble of HII regions is well fitted b…
The methods of abundance determinations in HII regions and planetary nebulae are described, with emphasis on the underlying assumptions and inherent problems. Recent results on abundances in Galactic HII regions and in Galactic and extragalactic Planetary Nebulae are reviewed.
We present millimetre-line imaging of the Galactic HII region Sh 104. We show that it is surrounded by a ring of molecular gas and dust. Four large molecular condensations are regularly spaced around the ring. These condensations are themselves fragmented and contain several massive dense cores. A deeply embedded cluster is observed in the near IR towards the largest condensation. It contains at least one massive star ionizing an ultra-compact HII region. The Sh 104 region is a good illustration of the `collect and collapse' model for star formation triggered by the expansion of an HII region.
We have developed a robust, automated method, hereafter designated HIIphot, which enables accurate photometric characterization of HII regions while permitting genuine adaptivity to irregular source morphology. HIIphot utilizes object-recognition techniques to make a first guess at the shapes of all sources then allows for departure from such idealized ``seeds'' through an iterative growing procedure. Photometric corrections for spatially coincident diffuse emission are derived from a low-order surface fit to the background after exclusion of all detected sources. We present results for the we…
The discrepancy between the oxygen abundances in high-metallicity HII regions determined through the Te-method (and/or through the corresponding "strong lines - oxygen abundance" calibration) and that determined through the model fitting (and/or through the corresponding "strong lines - oxygen abundance" calibration) is discussed. It is suggested to use the interstellar oxygen abundance in the solar vicinity, derived with very high precision from the high-resolution observations of the weak interstellar absorption lines towards the stars, as a "Rosetta stone" to verify the validity of the oxyg…
HII regions are known to contribute to the so-called thin layer of the diffuse Warm Ionized Gas. In order to constrain this contribution, we reconstruct the 3-D distribution of the sources. A detailed spatial analysis of the largest up-to-date sample of HII regions is presented.
We suggest a new way to establish the relation between the electron temperature t3 within the [OIII] zone and the electron temperature t2 within the [OII] zone in high-metallicity (12+log(O/H) > 8.25) HII regions. The t2 - t3 diagram is constructed by applying our method to a sample of 372 HII regions. We find that the correlation between t2 and t3 is tight and can be approximated by a linear expression. The new t2 - t3 relation can be used to determine t2 and accurate abundances in high-metallicity HII regions with a measured t3. It can also be used in conjunction with the ff relation for the…
The galaxy NGC6384 has been observed with an IPCS through H alpha and [NII] narrow-band interference filters for direct imagery with the 2.6 m Byurakan telescope. We studied main physical parameters of identified 98 HII regions, their diameter and luminosity functions, as well [NII]/H alpha ratio distribution. The integrated distribution function of the HII region diameters can be well fitted by the exponential function. The characteristic diameter has the value (Do = 217 pc) predicted for a galaxy of its measured absolute luminosity. The luminosity function of HII regions has double power law…
We derive the molecular properties for a sample of 301 Galactic HII regions including 123 ultra compact (UC), 105 compact, and 73 diffuse nebulae. We analyze all sources within the BU-FCRAO Galactic Ring Survey (GRS) of 13CO emission known to be HII regions based upon the presence of radio continuum and cm-wavelength radio recombination line emission. Unlike all previous large area coverage 13CO surveys, the GRS is fully sampled in angle and yet covers ~75 square degrees of the Inner Galaxy. The angular resolution of the GRS 46" allows us to associate molecular gas with HII regions without amb…
We address the question of whether violent star formation in HII galaxies is induced by low mass companions by describing statistically their local environment as estimated by the correlation function. We argue that even if low mass companions were mainly intergalactic HI clouds, their optical counterparts should be detectable at faint limits of the Automatic Plate Measuring Machine scans. We then cross-correlate a large sample of HII galaxies with the APM faint field galaxy catalogue. The preliminary results are all consistent with HII galaxies being a randomly selected sample of normal faint…
We build, as far as theory will permit, self consistent model HII regions around central clusters of aging stars. These produce strong emission line diagnostics applicable to either individual HII regions in galaxies, or to the integrated emission line spectra of disk or starburst galaxies. The models assume that the expansion and internal pressure of individual HII regions is driven by the net input of mechanical energy from the central cluster, be it through winds or supernova events. This eliminates the ionization parameter as a free variable, replacing it with a parameter which depends on …
Three Galactic HII regions, viz., S 201, S 206, and S 209 have been imaged at three frequencies, viz., 232, 327, and 610 MHz using the GMRT. The resolutions of these images are typically 15" at 232, 10" at 327, and 6" at 610 MHz. These are the highest resolution low frequency images of these HII regions. We found that all three HII regions have core--envelope morphologies. We use the high resolution afforded by the data to estimate the electron temperatures of the compact cores of these HII regions. These estimates of the electron temperatures are consistent with an increase in the temperature…
We investigate relationships between observed auroral and nebular oxygen line fluxes in spectra of HII regions. We find a relation that is metallicity-dependent at low metallicities, but becomes independent of metallicity (within the uncertainties of the available data) above 12+logO/H ~ 8.25, i.e. there is one-to-one correspondance (the ff - relation) between auroral and nebular oxygen line fluxes in spectra of high-metallicity HII regions. The ff - relation allows one to estimate the flux in the auroral line from strong oxygen line measurements. This solves the problem of the electron temper…
We analytically investigate the formation of an HII region in the accreting envelope of a newborn star. Special care is taken to examine the role of ionizing radiation force. This effect modifies velocity and density distributions and thereby affects the expansion of the HII region. As a result, the upper limit of the stellar mass imposed by the growth of an HII region around a forming star is increased by a larger factor than the previous estimate. In particular, for a star forming out of metal-free gas, this mechanism does not impose a firm upper limit on its mass.
We present radio continuum images of three Galactic HII regions, S 201, S 206, and S 209 near 232, 327, and 610 MHz using the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (GMRT). The GMRT has a mix of short and long baselines, therefore, even though the data have high spatial resolution, the maps are still sensitive to diffuse extended emission. We find that all three HII regions have bright cores surrounded by diffuse envelopes. We use the high resolution afforded by the data to estimate the electron temperatures and emission measures of the compact cores of these HII regions. Our estimates of electron te…
We use cosmological simulations of reionization to predict the effect of large HII regions around individual high-redshift quasars on the possible signal from the redshifted 21cm line of neutral hydrogen in the pre-reionization era. We show that these HII regions appear as ``spectral dips'' in frequency space with equivalent widths in excess of 3 mK MHz or depths in excess of about 1.5 mK, and that they are by far the most prominent cosmological signals in the redshifted HI distribution. These spectral dips are expected to be present in almost every line of sight. If the spectral dips of a lar…
The Antarctic Submillimeter Telescope and Remote Observatory (AST/RO) has been used to observe 78 of the IRAS point sources identified by Bronfman et al. (1996) as likely ultracompact HII regions. Results for the CO(4-3) line at 461.041GHz are presented. The 74 sources detected are bright and in many cases compact, making them potentially suitable as pointing calibrators for single dish submillimeter telescopes.
We report multifrequency radio continuum and hydrogen radio recombination line observations of HII regions near l=24.8d b=0.1d using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at 1.28 GHz (n=172), 0.61 GHz (n=220) and the Very Large Array (VLA) at 1.42 GHz (n=166). The region consists of a large number of resolved HII regions and a few compact HII regions as seen in our continuum maps, many of which have associated infrared (IR) point sources. The largest HII region at l=24.83d and b=0.1d is a few arcmins in size and has a shell-type morphology. It is a massive HII region enclosing ~ 550 solar…
We have used HST/NICMOS H-band narrow-band Pa-alpha (at rest 1.87micron) images to identify star clusters and HII regions respectively in a sample of 8 luminous infrared galaxies (LIRGs). These observations have revealed the presence of a large population of super star clusters (SSC) and bright HII regions. A significant fraction of the HII regions shows H-alpha luminosities above that of 30 Doradus, the prototypical giant HII region. The excess of extremely luminous HII regions in LIRGs has been confirmed by comparison with normal galaxies observed at similar spatial resolutions. Despite the …
We have obtained optical spectrophotometry of 11 HII regions in the polar ring of NGC 2685 (the Helix galaxy), and have used these data to study the physical characteristics of the polar-ring HII regions. The HII regions have normal spectra with no suggestion of unusual density, temperature, extinction, or composition. Semi-empirical calculations yield high oxygen abundance estimates (0.8--1.1 Z-Solar) in all HII regions. This, along with the observed (B-V) color, H-alpha equivalent width, and molecular gas properties argue against the current picture in which polar rings form from tidally cap…
We have discovered a number of very small isolated HII regions 20-30 kpc from their nearest galaxy. The HII regions appear as tiny emission line dots (ELdots) in narrow band images obtained by the NOAO Survey for Ionization in Neutral Gas Galaxies (SINGG). We have spectroscopic confirmation of 5 isolated HII regions in 3 systems. The H-alpha luminosities of the HII regions are equivalent to the ionizing flux of only 1 large or a few small OB stars each. These stars appear to have formed in situ and represent atypical star formation in the low density environment of galaxy outskirts. In situ st…
We present a study of the mid-infrared properties and dust content of a sample of 27 HII ``blobs'', a rare class of compact HII regions in the Magellanic Clouds. A unique feature of this sample is that even though these HII regions are of high and low excitation they have nearly the same physical sizes ~1.5-3 pc. We base our analysis on archival 3-8 microns infrared imagery obtained with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. We find that despite their youth, sub-solar metallicity and varied degrees of excitation, the mid-infrared colors of these regions are sim…
We use 2MASS and MSX infrared observations, along with new molecular line (CO) observations, to examine the distribution of young stellar objects (YSOs) in the molecular cloud surrounding the halo HII region KR 140 in order to determine if the ongoing star-formation activity in this region is dominated by sequential star formation within the photodissociation region (PDR) surrounding the HII region. We find that KR 140 has an extensive population of YSOs that have spontaneously formed due to processes not related to the expansion of the HII region. Much of the YSO population in the molecular c…
We review the structural properties of giant extragalactic HII regions and HII galaxies based on two dimensional hydrodynamic calculations, and propose an evolutionary sequence that accounts for their observed detailed structure. The model assumes a massive and young stellar cluster surrounded by a large collection of clouds. These are thus exposed to the most important star-formation feedback mechanisms: photoionization and the cluster wind. The models show how the two feedback mechanisms compete with each other in the disruption of clouds and lead to two different hydrodynamic solutions: The…
We have made a new survey of emission-line stars in the W5E HII region to investigate the population of PMS stars near the OB stars by using the Wide Field Grism Spectrograph 2 (WFGS2). A total of 139 H-alpha emission stars were detected and their g'i'-photometry was performed. The spatial distribution of them shows three aggregates, i.e., two aggregates near the bright-rimmed clouds at the edge of W5E HII region (BRC 13 and BRC 14) and one near the exciting O7V star. The age and mass of each H-alpha star were estimated from the extinction corrected color-magnitude diagram and theoretical evol…
The hypothesis that massive stars form by accretion can be investigated by simple analytical calculations that describe the effect that the formation of a massive star has on its own accretion flow. Within a simple accretion model that includes angular momentum, that of gas flow on ballistic trajectories around a star, the increasing ionization of a massive star growing by accretion produces a three-stage evolutionary sequence. The ionization first forms a small quasi-spherical HII region gravitationally trapped within the accretion flow. At this stage the flow of ionized gas is entirely inwar…
We report on the detection of optically thick free-free radio sources in the galaxies M33, NGC 253, and NGC 6946 using data in the literature. We interpret these sources as being young, embedded star birth regions, which are likely to be clusters of ultracompact HII regions. All 35 of the sources presented in this article have positive radio spectral indices alpha>0 suggesting an optically thick thermal bremsstrahlung emission arising in the HII region surrounding hot stars. Energy requirements indicate a range of a several to >500 O7V star equivalents powering each HII region. Assuming a Salp…
We present spectroscopic observations of a sample of 72 emission-line objects, including mainly HII regions, in the spiral galaxy M 33. Spectra were obtained with the multi-object, wide field spectrograph AF2/WYFFOS at the 4.2m WHT telescope. Line intensities, extinction, and electron density were determined for the whole sample of objects. The aim of the present work was to derive chemical and physical parameters of a set of HII regions, and from them the metallicity gradient. Electron temperatures and chemical abundances were derived for the 14 HII regions where both [OII] and [OIII] emissio…
We study the expansion of the ionization and dissociation fronts (DFs) in a radially stratified molecular cloud, whose density distribution is represented as n(r) \propto r^-w. We focus on cases with w \leq 1.5, when the ionization front is ``trapped'' in the cloud and expands with the preceding shock front. The simultaneous evolution of the outer photodissociation region (PDR) is examined in detail. First, we analytically probe the time evolution of the column densities of the shell and envelope outside the HII region, which are key physical quantities for the shielding of dissociating photon…
This review covers the dynamic processes that are important in the evolution and structure of galactic HII regions, concentrating on an elementary presentation of the physical concepts and recent numerical simulations of HII region evolution in a non-uniform medium. The contents are as follows: (1) The equations (Euler equations; Radiative transfer; Rate equations; How to avoid the dynamics; How to avoid the atomic physics). (2) Physical concepts (Static photoionization equilibrium; Ionization front propagation; Structure of a D-type front; Photoablation flows; Other ingredients - Stellar wind…
(Abridged) We present the results of three-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics simulations of the formation and evolution of early HII/HeIII regions around the first stars. Cooling (by H2 and HD) and recollapse of the gas in the relic HII region is also followed in a full cosmological context, until second-generation stars are formed. A large HII region with a few kiloparsec diameter is formed, within which a smaller HeIII region is embedded. Radiative feedback effect quenches further star-formation within the halo for a hundred million years. Accretion onto remnant blackholes will be ineffici…
We assess the impact of Galactic synchrotron foreground removal on the observation of high-redshift quasar HII regions in redshifted 21-cm emission. We consider the case where a quasar is observed in an intergalactic medium (IGM) whose ionisation structure evolves slowly relative to the light crossing time of the HII region, as well as the case where the evolution is rapid. The latter case is expected towards the end of the reionisation era where the highest redshift luminous quasars will be observed. In the absence of foregrounds the fraction of neutral hydrogen in the IGM could be measured d…
It has been proposed recently that the small size and long lifetime of ultra-compact HII regions (UCHIIs) could be due to pressure confinement if the thermal pressure of the ambient gas is higher than previous estimates. We point out that confinement by thermal pressure alone implies emission measures in excess of observed values. We show that turbulent pressure, inferred from observed non-thermal velocities, is sufficient to confine UC HIIs and explain their longevity. We predict an anti-correlation between the size of UCHIIs and the velocity dispersion of the ambient neutral gas, and show th…
Observed variations in the HII region luminosity function (HII LF) seen in spiral arm vs. interarm regions, and different galactic Hubble type, can be explained simply by evolutionary effects and maximum number of ionizing stars per cluster. We present Monte Carlo simulations of the HII LF, drawing the number of ionizing stars N_* from a power-law distribution of constant slope, and the stellar masses from a Salpeter IMF with an upper-mass limit of 100 M_sol. We investigate the evolution of the HII LF, as determined by stellar main-sequence lifetimes and ionizing luminosities, for a single bur…
We analyze the distribution of the interstellar matter in the environs of the HII region Gum31, excited by the open cluster NGC3324, located in the complex Carina region, with the aim of investigating the action of the massive stars on the surrounding neutral material. We use neutral hydrogen 21-cm line data, radio continuum images at 0.843, 2.4 and 4.9 GHz, 12CO(1-0) observations, and IRAS and MSX infrared data. Adopting a distance of 3 kpc for the HII region and the ionizing cluster, we derived an electron density of 33+/-3 cm^-3 and an ionized mass of (3.3+/-1.1)x10^3 Mo based on the radio …
Aims: We wish to establish whether sequential star formation is taking place at the periphery of the Galactic HII region Sh2-212. Methods: We present CO millimetre observations of this region obtained at the IRAM 30-m telescope to investigate the distribution of associated molecular material. We also use deep JHK observations obtained at the CFHT to study the stellar content of the region, and radio observations obtained at the VLA to look for the presence of an ultra-compact (UC) HII region and for maser emission. Results: In the optical, Sh2-212 is spherically symmetric around its central ex…
Cometary ultracompact HII regions have been modelled as the interaction of the hypersonic wind from a moving star with the molecular cloud which surrounds the star. We here show that a similar morphology can ensue even if the star is stationary with respect to the cloud material. We assume that the HII region is within a stellar wind bubble which is strongly mass loaded: the cometary shape results from a gradient in the distribution of mass loading sources. This model circumvents problems associated with the necessarily high spatial velocities of stars in the moving star models.
To calibrate the relationship between Ne3O2 (Ne3O2 = log(\neiii$\lambda3869$/\oii$\lambda3727$)) and oxygen abundances, we present a sample of $\sim$3000 $\hii$ galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data release four. They are associated with a sample from the literature intended to enlarge the oxygen abundance region. We calculated the electron temperatures ($T_e$) of 210 galaxies in the SDSS sample with the direct method, and $T_e$ of the other 2960 galaxies in SDSS sample calculated with an empirical method. Then, we use a linear least-square fitting to calibrate the Ne3O2 oxyge…
We present the results of high quality long-slit spectroscopy of planetary nebulae (PNe) and HII regions in the two dwarf irregular galaxies Sextans A and B, which belong to a small group of galaxies just outside the Local Group. In Sextans A we obtained the element abundances in its only known PN and in three HII regions with the classical Te method. The oxygen abundances in these three HII regions of Sextans A are all consistent within the individual rms uncertainties, with the average 12+log(O/H) = 7.54+/-0.06. The oxygen abundance of the PN in Sextans A is, however, significantly higher: 1…
