Chemical abundances in the protoplanetary disk LV2 (Orion): clues to the causes of the abundance anomaly in HII regions

TL;DR

This study uses optical and ultraviolet spectroscopy to analyze the chemical composition of the protoplanetary disk LV2 in Orion, revealing overabundances of key elements and addressing the longstanding abundance discrepancy in HII regions.

Contribution

First measurement of elemental abundances in LV2 using recombination lines, demonstrating that standard methods underestimate true metallicity in HII regions.

Findings

LV2 is overabundant in C, O, and Ne compared to Orion Nebula and Sun.

Recombination lines provide consistent abundance measurements, resolving the abundance anomaly.

Standard forbidden-line methods underestimate metallicity in HII regions.

Abstract

Optical integral field spectroscopy of the archetype protoplanetary disk LV2 in the Orion Nebula is presented, taken with the VLT FLAMES/Argus fibre array. The detection of recombination lines of CII and OII from this class of objects is reported, and the lines are utilized as abundance diagnostics. The study is complemented with the analysis of HST Faint Object Spectrograph ultraviolet and optical spectra of the target contained within the Argus field of view. By subtracting the local nebula background the intrinsic spectrum of the proplyd is obtained and its elemental composition is derived for the first time. The proplyd is found to be overabundant in carbon, oxygen and neon compared to the Orion Nebula and the sun. The simultaneous coverage over LV2 of the CIII] 1908-A and [OIII] 5007-A collisionally excited lines (CELs) and CII and OII recombination lines (RLs) has enabled us to measure the abundances of C++ and O++ for LV2 with both sets of lines. The two methods yield consistent results for the intrinsic proplyd spectrum, but not for the proplyd spectrum contaminated by the generic nebula spectrum, thus providing one example where the long-standing abundance anomaly plaguing metallicity studies of HII regions has been resolved. These results would indicate that the standard forbidden-line methods used in the derivation of light metal abundances in HII regions in our own and other galaxies underestimate the true gas metallicity.