We present optical spectra of nine Galactic H II regions observed with the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias telescope and located at Galactocentric distances (RG) from 4 to 8 kpc. The distances of the objects have been revised using Gaia DR2 parallaxes. We determine the electron temperature for all the nebulae, which allows a precise computation of their ionic abundances. We have included published data of an additional sample of Galactic H II regions, providing a final data set of 42 objects. The shape of the radial gradients of O/H and N/H is linear and constant, discarding any substantial change of the slope, at least for RG between 4 and 17 kpc. The small dispersion of the O/H and N/H values with respect to the computed gradients implies the absence of significant azimuthal variations of the chemical abundances, at least in the quadrant covered by our observations. We find an almost flat N/O versus O/H diagram relation. This result is not observed in other nearby spiral galaxy except M31. Finally, we compare our computed gradients with those obtained using far infrared (FIR) spectra. We confirm the significant offset in the N/O distribution between the optical and FIR observations. Possible explanations involve ionization correction factors and the strong dependence on density of the abundance determinations based on FIR lines.
We propose a new simple computational model to estimate adsorption energies of atoms and molecules to low-temperature amorphous water ice, and we present the adsorption energies of carbon (3P), nitrogen (4S), and oxygen (3P) atoms based on quantum chemistry calculations. The adsorption energies were estimated to be 14100 +- 420 K for carbon, 400 +- 30 K for nitrogen, and 1440 +-160 K for oxygen. The adsorption energy of oxygen is well consistent with experimentally reported value. We found that the binding of a nitrogen atom is purely physisorption, while that of a carbon atom is chemisorption…
We present a quick-start guide to BOND, a statistical method to derive oxygen and nitrogen abundances in H II regions. BOND compares a set of carefully selected strong and semistrong emission lines to a grid photoionization models. The first novelty, in comparison to other statistical methods, is that BOND relies on the [Ar III]/[Ne III] emission line ratio to break the oxygen abundance bimodality. In doing so, we can measure oxygen and nitrogen abundances without assuming any a priori relation between N/O and O/H. The second novelty is that BOND takes into account changes in the hardness of t…
Observations conducted using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array on the protoplanetary disk around TW Hya show the nitrogen fractionation of HCN molecules in HC$^{14}$N/HC$^{15}$N $\sim$120 at a radius of $\sim$20 AU. In this study, we investigated the physical and chemical conditions that control this nitrogen fractionation process. To this end, a new disk model was developed, in which the isotope-selective photodissociation of N$_2$ and isotope-exchange chemical reactions have been incorporated. Our model can successfully reproduce the observed HCN column density when the elemen…
We present chemical evolution models aimed at reproducing the observed (N/O) vs. (O/H) abundance pattern of star forming galaxies in the Local Universe. We derive gas-phase abundances from SDSS spectroscopy and a complementary sample of low-metallicity dwarf galaxies, making use of a consistent set of abundance calibrations. This collection of data clearly confirms the existence of a plateau in the (N/O) ratio at very low metallicity, followed by an increase of this ratio up to high values as the metallicity increases. This trend can be interpreted as due to two main sources of nitrogen in gal…
We derive the oxygen abundance (O/H), the nitrogen-to-oxygen (N/O) abundance ratio, and their corresponding radial gradients for a sample of 1431 galaxies from MaNGA DR15 survey using two different realizations of the strong line method: empirical R calibration and the Bayesian model-based {\sc HII-CHI-mistry} ({\sc HCm}) code. We find that both abundance calculation methods reveal a correlation between the O/H gradient and the stellar mass of a galaxy. This relation is non-linear, with the steepest average gradients in the intermediate mass range and flatter average gradients for high- and lo…
We examine how the cosmic environment affects the chemical evolution of galaxies in the Universe by comparing the N/O ratio of dwarf galaxies in voids with dwarf galaxies in more dense regions. Ratios of the forbidden [O III] and [S II] transitions provide estimates of a region's electron temperature and number density. We estimate the abundances of oxygen and nitrogen using these temperature and density estimates and the emission line fluxes [O II] 3727, [O III] 4959, 5007, and [N II] 6548, 6584 with the direct Te method. Using spectroscopic observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data…
We study how the void environment affects galactic chemical evolution by comparing the oxygen and nitrogen abundances of dwarf galaxies in voids with dwarf galaxies in denser regions. Using spectroscopic observations from SDSS DR7, we estimate oxygen, nitrogen, and neon abundances of 889 void dwarf galaxies and 672 dwarf galaxies in denser regions. A substitute for the [OII] 3727 doublet is developed, permitting oxygen abundance estimates of SDSS dwarf galaxies at all redshifts with the Direct Te method. We find that void dwarf galaxies have about the same oxygen abundance and Ne/O ratio, slig…
The oxygen and nitrogen abundance evolutions with redshift and galaxy stellar mass in emission-line SDSS galaxies are investigated. This is the first such study for nitrogen abundances, and it provides an additional constraint for the study of the chemical evolution of galaxies. We have devised a criterion to recognize and exclude from consideration AGNs and star-forming galaxies with large errors in the line flux measurements. To select star-forming galaxies with accurate line fluxes measurements, we require that, for each galaxy, the nitrogen abundances derived with various calibrations base…
Ultraviolet nebular emission lines are important for understanding the time evolution and nucleosynthetic origins of their associated elements, but the underlying trends of their relative abundances are unclear. We present UV spectroscopy of 20 nearby low-metallicity, high-ionization dwarf galaxies obtained using the Hubble Space Telescope. Building upon previous studies, we analyze the C/O relationship for a combined sample of 40 galaxies with significant detections of the UV O+2/C+2 collisionally-excited lines and direct-method oxygen abundance measurements. Using new analytic carbon ionizat…
Spectroscopic observations of 63 HII regions in six spiral galaxies (NGC 628, NGC 783, NGC 2336, NGC 6217, NGC 7331, and NGC 7678) were carried out with the 6-meter telescope (BTA) of Russian Special Astrophysical Observatory with the Spectral Camera attached to the focal reducer SCORPIO in the multislit mode with a dispersion of 2.1A/pixel and a spectral resolution of 10A. These observations were used to estimate the oxygen and nitrogen abundances and the electron temperatures in HII regions through the recent variant of the strong line method (NS calibration). The parameters of the radial di…
We present BOND, a Bayesian code to simultaneously derive oxygen and nitrogen abundances in giant H II regions. It compares observed emission lines to a grid of photoionization models without assuming any relation between O/H and N/O. Our grid spans a wide range in O/H, N/O and ionization parameter U, and covers different starburst ages and nebular geometries. Varying starburst ages accounts for variations in the ionizing radiation field hardness, which arise due to the ageing of H II regions or the stochastic sampling of the initial mass function. All previous approaches assume a strict relat…
Exploring the Milky Way stellar disk. Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sulphur, potassium, and copper abundances for 714 F- and G-type dwarf stars in the solar neighbourhood
For the first time, we establish a gas phase abundance pattern calibration for quiescent galaxies using optical emission lines. Quiescent galaxies have warm ionized gas showing line ratios similar to low-ionization nuclear emission line regions (LINER). The ionization mechanism for the gas is still an unsettled puzzle. Despite the uncertainty in the ionization mechanism, we argue that we can still infer certain gas phase abundance pattern from first principles. We show that the relative trend in N/O abundance can still be reliably measured based on [NII]6548,6583/[OII]3726,3729 and a direct me…
We present spectra obtained with the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio Canarias telescope of 13 Galactic HII regions, most of them of very low ionisation degree. The objects are located along the Galactic disc, with R_G from 5.7 to 16.1 kpc. We determine T_e([NII]) for all of them. We obtain - for the first time - a radial abundance gradient of N that is independent on the ionisation correction factor. The radial distribution of the N/O ratio is almost flat, indicating that the bulk of N is not formed by standard secondary processes. We have made a reassessment of the radial O abundance gradient combinin…
Simple relations for deriving the oxygen abundance in HII regions with intensities of the three strong emission lines R_2, R_3, and N_2 (R calibration) or S_2, R_3, and N_2 (S calibration) in their spectra are suggested. A sample of 313 reference HII regions of the counterpart method is used as calibrating data points. Relations for the determination of nitrogen abundances, the R calibration, are also constructed. We find that the oxygen and nitrogen abundances in high-metallicity HII regions can be estimated using the intensities of the two strong lines R_2 and N_2 (or S_2 and N_2 for oxygen)…
Spectroscopic observations of 32 HII regions in the spiral galaxy NGC 3963 and the barred irregular galaxy NGC 7292 were carried out with the 2.5-m telescope of the Caucasus Mountain Observatory of the Sternberg Astronomical Institute using the Transient Double-beam Spectrograph with a dispersion of 1A/pixel and a spectral resolution of 3A. These observations were used to estimate the oxygen and nitrogen abundances and the electron temperatures in HII regions through modern strong-line methods. In general, the galaxies have oxygen and nitrogen abundances typical of stellar systems with similar…
We present observations of [NII] 205 $μ$m, [OIII] 88 $μ$m and dust emission in a strongly-lensed, submillimeter galaxy (SMG) at $z=6.0$, G09.83808, with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Both [NII] and [OIII] line emissions are detected at $>12σ$ in the 0.8$"$-resolution maps. Lens modeling indicates that the spatial distribution of the dust continuum emission is well characterized by a compact disk with an effective radius of 0.64$\pm$0.02 kpc and a high infrared surface brightness of $Σ_\mathrm{IR}=(1.8\pm0.3)\times10^{12}~L_\odot$ kpc$^{-2}$. This result supports that…
We present deep spectrophotometry of 18 HII regions in the nearby massive spiral galaxies M101 and M31. We have obtained direct determinations of electron temperature in all the nebulae. We detect the CII 4267 line in several HII regions, permitting to derive the radial gradient of C/H in both galaxies. We also determine the radial gradients of O/H, N/O, Ne/O, S/O, Cl/O and Ar/O ratios. As in other spiral galaxies, the C/H gradients are steeper than those of O/H producing negative slopes of the C/O gradient. The scatter of the abundances of O with respect to the gradient fittings do not suppor…
Bar-induced gas inflows towards the galaxy centres are recognized as a key agent for the secular evolution of galaxies. One immediate consequence is the accumulation of gas in the centre of galaxies where it can form stars and alter the chemical and physical properties. We use a sample of nearby face--on disc galaxies with available SDSS spectra to study whether the properties of the ionised gas in the central parts (radii <~0.6-2.1 kpc) of barred galaxies are altered by the presence of a bar, and whether the bar effect is related to bar and/or parent galaxy properties. The distributions of al…
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) has proved to be a powerful resource for understanding the physical properties and chemical composition of star-forming galaxies in the local universe. The SDSS population of active galactic nuclei (AGN) remains as of yet less explored in this capacity. To extend the rigorous study of \ion{H}{ii} regions in the SDSS to AGN, we adapt methods for computing direct-method chemical abundances for application to the narrow-line regions (NLR) of AGN. By accounting for triply-ionized oxygen, we are able to more completely estimate the total oxygen abundance. We find…
We study the relation between nitrogen and oxygen abundances as a function of metallicity for a sample of emission-line objects for which a direct measurement of the metallicity has been possible. This sample is representative of the very different conditions in ionization and chemical enrichement that we can find in the Universe. We first construct the N/O vs. O/H diagram and we discuss its large dispersion at all metallicity regimes. Using the same sample and a large grid of photoionization models covering very different values of the N/O ratio, we then study the most widely used strong-line…
We obtained new quantitative determinations of the nitrogen abundance and a consistent relation between nitrogen and oxygen abundances for a sample of Seyfert 2 galaxies located at redshift $z < 0.1$. We carried out this analysis using the Cloudy code to build detailed photoionization models. We were able to reproduce observed optical narrow emission line intensities for 44 sources compiled from the literature. Our results show that Seyfert 2 nuclei have nitrogen abundances ranging from $\sim0.3$ to $\sim 7.5$ times the solar value. We derived the relation $\rm \log(N/H)=1.05 (\pm0.09) \times …
Nitrogen enhancement of GN-z11 by metal pollution from supermassive stars
The University of Tokyo（东京大学）；University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学）；Kobe University（神户大学）；Tohoku University of Community Service and Science（东北社区科学大学）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；Waseda University（早稻田大学）；Johns Hopkins University（约翰斯·霍普金斯大学）
We used VLT/XShooter to target a sample of nearby analogs of Lyman Break Galaxies (LBGs). These Lyman Break Analogs (LBAs) are similar to the LBGs in many of their physical properties. We determine electron temperatures using the weak [O III]4363 emission line, and determine the oxygen abundance (O/H) using the direct and strong line methods. We show that the direct and strong line abundances are consistent with established relations within ~0.2 dex. The analogs have nitrogen-to-oxygen ratios (N/O) and ionization parameters (q) that are, on average, offset with respect to typical local galaxie…
The study of carbon and oxygen abundances yields information on the time evolution and nucleosynthetic origins of these elements, yet remains relatively unexplored. At low metallicities (12+log(O/H) < 8.0), nebular carbon measurements are limited to rest-frame UV collisionally excited emission lines. Therefore, we present UV spectrophotometry of 12 nearby, low-metallicity, high-ionization HII regions in dwarf galaxies obtained with the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope. We present the first analysis of the C/O ratio in local galaxies based solely on simultaneous signifi…
We present a detailed study of the rest-optical (3600-7000 Angstrom) nebular spectra of ~380 star-forming galaxies at z~2-3 obtained with Keck/MOSFIRE as part of the Keck Baryonic Structure Survey (KBSS). The KBSS-MOSFIRE sample is representative of star-forming galaxies at these redshifts, with stellar masses M*=10^9-10^11.5 M_sun and star formation rates SFR=3-1000 M_sun/yr. We focus on robust measurements of many strong diagnostic emission lines for individual galaxies: [O II]3727,3729, [Ne III]3869, H-beta, [O III]4960,5008, [N II]6549,6585, H-alpha, and [S II]6718,6732. Comparisons with o…
In this work we present the main atmospheric parameters, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen abundances, and 12C/13C ratios determined in a sample of 28 Galactic clump stars. Abundances of carbon were studied using the C2 band at 5086.2 Å. The wavelength interval 7980-8130 Å with strong CN features was analysed in order to determine nitrogen abundances and 12C/13C isotope ratios. The oxygen abundances were determined from the [O I] line at 6300 Å. The mean abundances of C, N and O abundances in the investigated clump stars support our previous estimations that, compared to the Sun and dwarf stars of t…
The Hipparcos orbiting observatory has revealed a large number of helium-core-burning "clump" stars in the Galactic field. These low-mass stars exhibit signatures of extra-mixing processes that require modeling beyond the first dredge-up of standard models. The 12C/13C ratio is the most robust diagnostic of deep mixing, because it is insensitive to the adopted stellar parameters. In this work we present 12C/13C determinations in a sample of 34 Galactic clump stars as well as abundances of nitrogen, carbon and oxygen. Abundances of carbon were studied using the C2 Swan (0,1) band head at 5635.5…
