Bibcode
Cedrés, B.; Cepa, J.; Bongiovanni, A.; Castañeda, H.; Sánchez-Portal, M.; Tomita, A.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, Volume 545, id.A43
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9
2012
Journal
Citations
36
Refereed citations
35
Description
Aims: We present here two H II region catalogues with azimuthal
resolution for the two grand design galaxies NGC 628 and NGC 6946. With
the help of these catalogues, we study several properties of the
star-forming processes occurring in spiral galaxies. Methods: We
obtained direct imaging in the narrow-band filters centred at Hα,
Hβ, [O II]λ3727, and [O III]λλ4959, 5007 and
their respective continua. After the calibration and correction of the
data, we obtained for each H II region the de-reddened fluxes in the
aforementioned lines, the size, the Hα equivalent width, and,
using two different empirical calibrations, the metallicity. Employing a
method based on the Delaunay triangulation, a two-dimensional (2D)
representation of the metallicity was obtained. Results: Data for
209 H II regions of NGC 628 and 226 H II regions of NGC 6946 are
obtained. The radial behaviours of the Hα equivalent width, the
excitation, and the oxygen abundance are derived. Two-dimensional
representations of the metallicity and the excitation are calculated for
the galaxies in the study. The two empirical calibrations of the
metallicity are compared. Conclusions: The behaviours of the
extinction and the Hα equivalent width are similar to those
presented in the literature. The oxygen abundance gradients obtained in
this study agree with previously published values. However, more regions
were examined than in previous studies. We find a difference of about
0.6 dex between the two empirical calibrations employed. Finally, the 2D
representations of the metallicity reveal high metallicity knots in NGC
628, and for NGC 6946 a high metallicity azimuthal structure is
discovered. These high metallicity regions seem to be linked to the arms
of the galaxies and are probably produced by an increase in the
temperature of the ionizing clusters in the H II regions, which may be
linked to variations in the initial mass functions of the galaxies
between the arm and interarm regions.
Full Tables 4-9 are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org
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