Direct Far-Infrared Metal Abundances (FIRA) I: M101

TL;DR

This paper introduces the FIRA method, using far-infrared lines and radio data to directly measure gas-phase oxygen abundances in galaxies, offering an alternative to optical methods affected by temperature sensitivity.

Contribution

The paper presents the first application of FIR-based direct-abundance measurements, validating their consistency with optical methods in the galaxy M101.

Findings

FIRA results agree with optical direct-abundance methods within uncertainties.

FIRA provides a temperature-insensitive alternative for abundance measurements.

Initial results support FIRA's potential for studying dusty, star-forming galaxies.

Abstract

Accurately determining gas-phase metal-abundances within galaxies is critical as metals strongly affect the physics of the interstellar medium (ISM). To date, the vast majority of widely-used gas-phase abundance-indicators rely on emission from bright optical-lines, whose emissivities are highly sensitive to the electron temperature. Alternatively, direct-abundance methods exist that measure the temperature of the emitting gas directly, though these methods usually require challenging observations of highly-excited auroral lines. Low-lying far-infrared (FIR) fine-structure lines are largely insensitive to electron temperature and thus provide an attractive alternative to optically-derived abundances. Here, we introduce the far-infrared abundances (FIRA) project, which employs these FIR transitions, together with both radio free-free emission and hydrogen recombination-lines, to derive direct, absolute gas-phase oxygen-abundances. Our first target is M101, a nearby spiral-galaxy with a relatively steep abundance gradient. Our results are consistent with the O$^{++}$ electron-temperatures and absolute oxygen-abundances derived using optical direct-abundance methods by the CHemical Abundance Of Spirals (CHAOS) program, with a small difference ($\sim$ 1.5$\sigma$) in the radial abundance-gradients derived by the FIR/free-free-normalized vs. CHAOS/direct-abundance techniques. This initial result demonstrates the validity of the FIRA methodology $-$ with the promise of determining absolute metal-abundances within dusty star-forming galaxies, both locally and at high redshift.