Detalles de publicación
PP 024008
Effects of density and temperature variations on the metallicity of Mrk71
(1) Universität Heidelberg, (2) IAC, (3) Instituto de Astronomía UNAM
Historically, two indicators of heavy element abundances in ionized nebulae, optical collisionally excited lines (CELs) with an exponential temperature (Te) dependence and recombination lines (RLs) with less Te sensitivity, have produced inconsistent results. By using the less Te dependent infrared (IR) [O III] CELs, Chen et al. (2023) argue that the temperature inhomogeneities scenario proposed by Peimbert (1967) cannot explain the abundance discrepancy in the star-forming galaxy Mrk 71. We show that this conclusion depends on several assumptions, mainly the absence of biases in electron density (ne) determinations, a parameter on which IR-CELs depend more than optical CELs. Since multiple ne indicators in previous and the discussed work on Mrk 71 show significant differences, we conclude that the existence of temperature inhomogeneities cannot be ruled out.

