Integral Field Spectroscopy of Blue Compact Dwarf Galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses integral-field optical spectroscopy to analyze five luminous Blue Compact Dwarf galaxies, revealing their metallicity, ionization, dust content, and complex velocity fields, providing detailed spatial insights into their properties.

Contribution

First application of integral-field spectroscopy to map ionization, metallicity, and kinematics in luminous Blue Compact Dwarf galaxies at high spatial resolution.

Findings

Galaxies have high metallicity, Z~0.3 to 1.5 Z_sun.

Ionization is HII-like except in outer regions of II Zw 102, indicating shocks.

All galaxies show complex velocity fields and inhomogeneous dust extinction.

Abstract

We present results on integral-field optical spectroscopy of five luminous Blue Compact Dwarf galaxies. The data were obtained using the fiber system INTEGRAL attached at the William Herschel telescope. The galaxies Mrk 370, Mrk 35, Mrk 297, Mrk 314 and III Zw 102 were observed. The central 33"x29" regions of the galaxies were mapped with a spatial resolution of 2"/spaxel, except for Mrk 314, in which we observed the central 16"x12" region with a resolution of 0.9"/spaxel$. We use high-resolution optical images to isolate the star-forming knots in the objects; line ratios, electron densities and oxygen abundances in each of these regions are computed. We build continuum and emission-line intensity maps as well as maps of the most relevant line ratios: [OIII]5007\Hb, [NII]6584\Ha, and Ha\Hb, which allow us to obtain spatial information on the ionization structure and mechanisms. We also derive the gas velocity field from the Ha and [OIII]5007 emission lines. We find that all the five galaxies are in the high end of the metallicity range of Blue Compact Dwarf galaxies, with oxygen abundances varying from Z\sun~0.3 to Z\sun~1.5. The objects show HII-like ionization in the whole field of view, except the outer regions of IIIZw102 whose large [NII]6584/Ha values suggest the presence of shocks. The five galaxies display inhomogeneous extinction patterns, and three of them have high Ha/Hb ratios, indicative of a large dust content; all galaxies display complex, irregular velocity fields in their inner regions.