The Mid-Infrared [SIV]/[NeII] versus [NeIII]/[NeII] Correlation

TL;DR

This study establishes a reliable conversion between ground-accessible mid-infrared line ratios and the classic ionization diagnostic, enabling ground-based telescopes to effectively analyze nebulae ionization states.

Contribution

The paper derives a linear correlation between [SIV]/[NeII] and [NeIII]/[NeII] ratios, facilitating ground-based MIR ionization diagnostics.

Findings

Strong correlation between [SIV]/[NeII] and [NeIII]/[NeII] ratios.

Conversion law accurate within a factor of ~2.

Enables ground-based MIR ionization studies.

Abstract

The mid-infrared ratio [NeIII]15.6mum/[NeII]12.8mum is a strong diagnostic of the ionization state of emission line objects, due to its use of only strong neon emission lines only weakly affected by extinction. However this ratio is not available to ground-based telescopes as only a few spectroscopic windows are available in the MIR. To deal with this problem we aimed to verify if there exists a conversion law between ground-accessible, strong MIR line ratio [SIV]/[NeII] and the diagnostic [NeIII]/[NeII] ratio that can serve as a reference for future ground-based observations. We collated the [SIV]10.5mum, [NeII]12.8mum, [NeIII]15.6\mum and [SIII]18.7mum emission line fluxes from a wide range of sources in the rich Spitzer and ISO archives, and compared the [NeIII]/[NeII], [SIV]/[SIII], and [SIV]/[NeII] ratios. We find a strong correlation between the [SIV]/[NeII] and [\neiii]/[\neii] ratio, with a linear fit of log([NeIII]/[NeII]) = 0.81log([SIV]/[NeII])+0.36, accurate to a factor of ~2 over four orders of magnitude in the line ratios. This demonstrates clearly the ability of ground-based infrared spectrographs to do ionization studies of nebulae.