{\alpha}-element enhancements in the Magellanic Interstellar Medium: evidence for recent star formation

TL;DR

This study measures the chemical composition of the neutral interstellar medium in the Magellanic Clouds, revealing recent star formation signatures through alpha-element enhancements and metallicity variations.

Contribution

It provides the first direct measurements of metallicity, dust depletion, and alpha-element enhancements in the neutral ISM of the LMC and SMC, highlighting recent star formation effects.

Findings

Alpha-element enhancements of 0.26 dex in LMC and 0.35 dex in SMC.

Detection of lower metallicity regions near the Magellanic Bridge.

Neutral ISM metallicities mostly align with those of hot stars.

Abstract

Important questions on the chemical composition of the neutral ISM in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) and Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) are still open. It is usually assumed that their metallicity is uniform and equal to that measured in hot stars and HII regions, but direct measurements on the neutral ISM have not been performed until now. Deriving the metallicity from the observed metal abundances is not straightforward because they also depend on the depletion of metals into dust as well as nucleosynthesis effects such as $\alpha$-element enhancement. We collect literature column densities of TiII, NiII, CrII, FeII, MnII, SiII, CuII, MgII, SII, PII, ZnII, and OI in the neutral ISM towards 32 and 22 hot stars in the LMC and SMC. We measure the metallicity, dust depletion, and $\alpha$-element enhancements in the neutral ISM in the LMC and SMC. We find $\alpha$-element enhancements in the neutral ISM in most systems, on average 0.26 dex (0.35 dex) for the LMC (SMC), and Mn under-abundance in the SMC (on average $-0.35$ dex). These are higher than for stars at similar metallicities. The observed $\alpha$-element enhancements and Mn under-abundance are likely due to bursts of star formation, more recently than ~1 Gyr ago, that enriched the ISM from core-collapse supernovae. We find total neutral ISM metallicities that are mostly consistent with hot stars metallicity, on average [M/H]$_{\rm tot} = -0.33$ ($-0.83$), in the LMC (SMC). In six systems, however, we find significantly lower metallicities, two out of 32 in the LMC (with ~16% solar) and four out of 22 in the SMC (3 and 10% solar), two of which are in the outskirts of the SMC near the Magellanic Bridge, a region known for having a lower metallicity. With the exception of lines of sight towards the Magellanic Bridge, the neutral gas in the LMC and SMC appears fairly well mixed in terms of metallicity. [abridged]