Abstract
Diffuse ionized gas (DIG) is prevalent in star-forming galaxies. Using a sample of 365 nearly face-on star-forming galaxies observed by Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO, we demonstrate how DIG in star-forming galaxies impacts the measurements of emission-line ratios, hence the interpretation of diagnostic diagrams and gas-phase metallicity measurements. At fixed metallicity, DIG-dominated low ΣHα regions display enhanced [S II]/Hα, [N II]/Hα, [O II]/Hβ and [O I]/Hα. The gradients in these line ratios are determined by metallicity gradients and ΣHα. In line ratio diagnostic diagrams, contamination by DIG moves H II regions towards composite or low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LI(N)ER)-like regions. A harder ionizing spectrum is needed to explain DIG line ratios. Leaky H II region models can only shift line ratios slightly relative to H II region models, and thus fail to explain the composite/LI(N)ER line ratios displayed by DIG. Our result favours ionization by evolved stars as a major ionization source for DIG with LI(N)ER-like emission. DIG can significantly bias the measurement of gas metallicity and metallicity gradients derived using strong-line methods. Metallicities derived using N2O2 are optimal because they exhibit the smallest bias and error. Using O3N2, R23, N2 = [N II]/Hα and N2S2Hα to derive metallicities introduces bias in the derived metallicity gradients as large as the gradient itself. The strong-line method of Blanc et al. (IZI hereafter) cannot be applied to DIG to get an accurate metallicity because it currently contains only H II region models that fail to describe the DIG.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-20-2016
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw3308
Funding Information
KB is supported by World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI Initiative), MEXT, Japan and by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15K17603. MAB acknowledges support from NSFAST-1517006. RM acknowledge support by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the ERC Advanced Grant 695671 ‘QUENCH’. C.A.T. acknowledges support from National Science Foundation of the United States grant no. 1412287. DB was supported by grant RSF 14-50-00043. Funding for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the US Department of Energy Office of Science and the Participating Institutions. The SDSS web site is www.sdss.org.
Repository Citation
Zhang, Kai; Yan, Renbin; Bundy, Kevin; Bershady, Matthew; Haffner, L. Matthew; Walterbos, René; Maiolino, Roberto; Tremonti, Christy; Thomas, Daniel; Drory, Niv; Jones, Amy; Belfiore, Francesco; Sánchez, Sebastian F.; Diamond-Stanic, Aleksandar M.; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Nitschelm, Christian; Andrews, Brett; Brinkmann, Jon; Brownstein, Joel R.; Cheung, Edmond; Li, Cheng; Law, David R.; Lopes, Alexandre Roman; Oravetz, Daniel; Pan, Kaike; Bergmann, Thaisa Storchi; and Simmons, Audrey, "SDSS-IV MaNGA: The Impact of Diffuse Ionized Gas on Emission-Line Ratios, Interpretation of Diagnostic Diagrams and Gas Metallicity Measurements" (2016). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 556.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/556
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, v. 466, issue 3, p. 3217-3243.
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
The copyright holders have granted the permission for posting the article here.