On the large escape of ionizing radiation from GEHRs

Abstract

A thorough analysis of well studied giant HII regions on galactic discs for which we know the ionizing stellar population, the gas metallicity and the Wolf-Rayet population, leads to photoionization models which can only match all observed line intensity ratios ([OIII], [OII], [NII], [SII] and [SIII] with respect to the intensity of H$β$), as well as the H$β$ luminosity and equivalent width if one allows for an important escape of energetic ionizing radiation. For the three regions presented here, the fractions of escaping Lyman continuum photons amount to 10 to 73 % and, in all cases, the larger fraction of escaping photons has energies between 13.6 and 24.4 eV. These escaping photons clearly must have an important impact as a source of ionization of the diffuse ionized gas (DIG) found surrounding many galaxies, as well as of the intergalactic medium (IGM).