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arXiv · 2004.10765

CHAOS V: Recombination Line Carbon Abundances in M101

Evan D. Skillman·Danielle A. Berg·Richard W. Pogge·John Moustakas·Noah S. J. Rogers·Kevin V. Croxall
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Abstract

The CHAOS project is building a large database of LBT H II region spectra in nearby spiral galaxies to use direct abundances to better determine the dispersion in metallicity as a function of galactic radius. Here, we present CHAOS LBT observations of C II $λ$4267 emission detected in 10 H II regions in M 101, and, using a new photoionization model based ionization correction factor, we convert these measurements into total carbon abundances. A comparison with M101 C II recombination line observations from the literature shows excellent agreement, and we measure a relatively steep gradient in log(C/H) of -0.37 +/- 0.06 dex/R_e. The C/N observations are consistent with a constant value of log(C/N) = 0.84 with a dispersion of only 0.09 dex, which, given the different nucleosynthetic sources of C and N, is challenging to understand. We also note that when plotting N/O versus O/H, all of the H II regions with detections of CII $λ$4267 present N/O abundances at the minimum of the scatter in N/O at a given value of O/H. If the high surface brightness necessary for the detection of the faint recombination lines is interpreted as an indicator of H II region youth, then this may point to a lack of nitrogen pollution in the youngest H II regions. In the future, we anticipate that the CHAOS project will significantly increase the total number of C II $λ$4267 measurements in extragalactic H II regions.

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Evan D. Skillman, Danielle A. Berg, Richard W. Pogge, John Moustakas, Noah S. J. Rogers, Kevin V. Croxall. 2020-04-22. CHAOS V: Recombination Line Carbon Abundances in M101. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Fab86ae

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