Elemental Abundances of Blue Compact Dwarfs from mid-IR Spectroscopy with Spitzer

Abstract

We present a study of elemental abundances in a sample of thirteen Blue Compact Dwarf (BCD) galaxies, using the $\sim$10--37$\mu$m high resolution spectra obtained with Spitzer/IRS. We derive the abundances of neon and sulfur for our sample using the infrared fine-structure lines probing regions which may be obscured by dust in the optical and compare our results with similar infrared studies of starburst galaxies from ISO. We find a good correlation between the neon and sulfur abundances, though sulfur is under-abundant relative to neon with respect to the solar value. A comparison of the elemental abundances (neon, sulfur) measured from the infrared data with those derived from the optical (neon, sulfur, oxygen) studies reveals a good overall agreement for sulfur, while the infrared derived neon abundances are slightly higher than the optical values. This indicates that either the metallicities of dust enshrouded regions in BCDs are similar to the optically accessible regions, or that if they are different they do not contribute substantially to the total infrared emission of the host galaxy.

11 pages, 6 figures, accepted by ApJ

References in corpus (51)

• The Spitzer Space Telescope Mission
• Interstellar Dust Grains
• The Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope
• A Search for "Dwarf" Seyfert Nuclei. III. Spectroscopic Parameters and Properties of the Host Galaxies
• The 'Forbidden' Abundance of Oxygen in the Sun
• Heavy element abundances in blue compact galaxies
• The SMART Data Analysis Package for the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope
• New light on the search for low metallicity galaxies I. The N2 method
• Mid-IR Galaxy Classification Based on Silicate Obscuration and PAH Equivalent Width
• The most metal-poor galaxies
• Metallicity Effects on Mid-Infrared Colors and the 8 micron PAH Emission in Galaxies
• Palomar/Las Campanas Imaging Atlas of Blue Compact Dwarf galaxies: I. Images and integrated photometry
• An Integrated Spectrophotometric Survey of Nearby Star-Forming Galaxies
• Mid Infrared Properties of Low Metallicity Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies From Spitzer/IRS
• A Spectroscopic Study of a Large Sample of Wolf-Rayet Galaxies
• Helium abundance in the most metal-deficient blue compact galaxies: I Zw 18 and SBS 0335-052
• Spectral Irradiance Calibration in the Infrared. XIII. "Supertemplates" and On-Orbit Calibrators for SIRTF's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC)
• Sulfur, Chlorine, and Argon Abundances in Planetary Nebulae. IV: Synthesis and the Sulfur Anomaly
• The Extraordinary Mid-infrared Spectrum of the Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy SBS0335-052
• A mid-infrared spectroscopic survey of starburst galaxies: excitation and abundances
• ISO spectroscopy of compact HII regions in the Galaxy. II Ionization and elemental abundances
• Effects of Massive Star Formation on the ISM of Dwarf Galaxies
• Dust in an extremely metal-poor galaxy: mid-infrared observations of SBS 0335-052
• The PAH Emission Deficit In Low-Metallicity Galaxies - A Spitzer View
• Discovery of Eight New Extremely Metal--Poor Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The optical-to-radio spectral energy distributions of low-metallicity blue compact dwarf galaxies
• Spectroscopic study of blue compact galaxies V. oxygen abundance and the metallicity-luminosity relation
• Metal Abundances of KISS Galaxies. I. Coarse Metal Abundances and the Metallicity-Luminosity Relation
• The Embedded Super Star Cluster of SBS0335-052
• A photoionization modeling study of 30 Doradus: the case for small-scale chemical inhomogeneity
• Planetary nebulae abundances and stellar evolution
• Probing AGB nucleosynthesis via accurate Planetary Nebula abundances
• Abundances in the Neutral Interstellar Medium of I Zw 18 from FUSE Observations
• SBS 0335-052W: The Lowest-Metallicity Star-Forming Galaxy Known
• VLT/GIRAFFE spectroscopic observations of the metal-poor blue compact dwarf galaxy SBS 0335-052E
• The Diverse Infrared Properties of a Complete Sample of Star-Forming Dwarf Galaxies
• Deep VLT spectroscopy of the blue compact dwarf galaxies Tol 1214-277 and Tol 65
• Anomalously low PAH emission from low-luminosity galaxies
• The He abundance in the metal-deficient blue compact dwarf galaxies Tol 1214-277 and Tol 65
• Spectroscopic Study of Blue Compact Galaxies II. Spectral Analysis and Correlations
• Neon and Sulfur Abundances of Planetary Nebulae in the Magellanic Clouds
• The Radio Continuum of the Metal-Deficient Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy SBS0335-052
• A spectrophotometric catalogue of HII galaxies
• On the Measurement of Elemental Abundance Ratios in Inner Galaxy H II Regions
• Dust in the Extremely Metal-Poor Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxy IZw18: The Spitzer Mid-Infrared View
• Abundance differences between the neutral and the ionized gas of the dwarf galaxy IZw 36
• Spitzer Observations of M83 and the Hot Star, H II Region Connection
• High spatial resolution mid-infrared spectroscopy of the starburst galaxies NGC 3256, IIZw40 and Henize 2-10
• The Nature Of Radio Continuum Emission At Very Low Metallicity: Very Large Array Observations of I Zw 18
• The Spitzer View of Low-Metallicity Star Formation: I. Haro 3
• The Hamburg/SAO survey for emission-line galaxies. VI. The sixth list of 126 galaxies

Cited by in corpus (22)

• Optical Spectroscopy and Nebular Oxygen Abundances of the Spitzer/SINGS Galaxies
• A Spitzer high resolution mid-infrared spectral atlas of starburst galaxies
• Metallicity Diagnostics with Infrared Fine-Structure Lines
• The nature of the interstellar medium of the starburst low-metallicity galaxy Haro11: a multi-phase model of the infrared emission
• Chemical composition and mixing in giant HII regions: NGC3603, 30Doradus, and N66
• Probing the Excitation of Extreme Starbursts: High Resolution Mid-IR Spectroscopy of Blue Compact Dwarfs
• Neutral gas heating by X-rays in primitive galaxies: Infrared observations of IZw18 with Herschel
• Influence of the Environment on PAH Emission in Star-Forming Regions
• Dust emission in star-forming dwarf galaxies: General properties and the nature of the sub-mm excess
• Optical and mid-infrared neon abundance determinations in star-forming regions
• VLT/X-shooter observations of blue compact galaxies Haro 11 and ESO 338-IG 004
• Disentangling the metallicity and star formation history of HII galaxies through tailor-made models
• Tracing Ram-Pressure Stripping with Warm Molecular Hydrogen Emission
• Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies with Spitzer: The Infrared/Radio Properties
• Search for blue compact dwarf galaxies during quiescence II: metallicities of gas and stars, ages, and star-formation rates
• A nearby GRB host prototype for z~7 Lyman-break galaxies: Spitzer-IRS and X-shooter spectroscopy of the host galaxy of GRB031203
• On the use of Sulphur as a tracer for abundances in galaxies
• Measuring Chemical Abundances with Infrared Nebular Lines: HII-Chi-mistry-IR
• On the hardening of the ionizing radiation in HII regions across galactic discs through softness parameters
• Spitzer observations of extragalactic H II regions - III. NGC 6822 and the hot star, H II region connection
• Ionized Gas Kinematics at High Resolution. II: Discovery of a Double Infrared Cluster in II Zw 40
• The Formation and Evolution of Massive Stellar Clusters in IC 4662