02.01.2015 Views

A spatially resolved study of ionized regions in galaxies at different ...

A spatially resolved study of ionized regions in galaxies at different ...

A spatially resolved study of ionized regions in galaxies at different ...

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

118 4 • Long-slit spectrophotometry <strong>of</strong> multiple knots <strong>of</strong> Hii <strong>galaxies</strong><br />

Flux (erg cm -2 s -1 Å -1 )<br />

6e-16<br />

4e-16<br />

[OII]<br />

3727,29 Å<br />

[NeIII]<br />

3869 Å<br />

IIZw71 - Knot C<br />

Hδ<br />

4102 Å Hγ<br />

4340 Å<br />

[OIII]<br />

4363 Å<br />

Hβ<br />

4861 Å<br />

[OIII]<br />

4959 Å<br />

Flux (erg cm -2 s -1 Å -1 )<br />

2e-16 3e-16<br />

2e-16<br />

1e-16<br />

0<br />

-1e-16<br />

3800 4000 4200 4400 4600 4800 5000<br />

Wavelength (Å)<br />

Figure 4.9: Results <strong>of</strong> the STARLIGHT fit to the cont<strong>in</strong>uum spectral energy distribution for knot<br />

C <strong>of</strong> IIZw71, the one most affected by underly<strong>in</strong>g stellar popul<strong>at</strong>ion contribution. The lower panel<br />

shows the emission l<strong>in</strong>e spectrum once this contribution has been removed.<br />

Bad pixels and emission l<strong>in</strong>es were excluded from the f<strong>in</strong>al fits. The percentage <strong>of</strong> the mean<br />

devi<strong>at</strong>ion over all fitted pixels between observed and model spectra ranges between 7.3% <strong>in</strong><br />

knots A and D, which have the lowest signal, to 2.9 % <strong>in</strong> knot B and 1.9% <strong>in</strong> knot C.<br />

Figure 4.9 illustr<strong>at</strong>es the results <strong>of</strong> the model fitt<strong>in</strong>g to the spectrum <strong>of</strong> knot C. The<br />

upper panel shows the observed spectrum and the model spectrum. The lower panel shows<br />

the subtraction <strong>of</strong> the fitted stellar cont<strong>in</strong>uum. We measured the Balmer emission l<strong>in</strong>e fluxes<br />

over a l<strong>in</strong>ear cont<strong>in</strong>uum derived by hand from the observed spectra. We then compared these<br />

with the same measurements over the cont<strong>in</strong>uum derived from the model SSPs. This allows<br />

the equivalent widths to be corrected by the presence <strong>of</strong> absorption stellar fe<strong>at</strong>ures <strong>in</strong> these<br />

l<strong>in</strong>es th<strong>at</strong> cause the measured EWs to be underestim<strong>at</strong>ed.<br />

In Table 4.2 we summarise our results for the four brightest Balmer emission l<strong>in</strong>es. For<br />

each Balmer l<strong>in</strong>e, the first row gives the measured equivalent width <strong>of</strong> the emission l<strong>in</strong>e, while<br />

the third row gives the correspond<strong>in</strong>g value after the removal <strong>of</strong> the underly<strong>in</strong>g absorption.<br />

The second row gives the r<strong>at</strong>io between the two. Knot C is the most affected <strong>in</strong>dic<strong>at</strong><strong>in</strong>g a<br />

larger contribution by the underly<strong>in</strong>g stellar popul<strong>at</strong>ion, although the correction for the Hβ<br />

l<strong>in</strong>e only amounts to 13%, reach<strong>in</strong>g 24% for the Hδ l<strong>in</strong>e. For the rest <strong>of</strong> the knots, only B<br />

presents a significant contribution <strong>of</strong> 13 % for the Hδ l<strong>in</strong>e.

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!