Abstract

Rickards Vaught
Investigating the Drivers of Electron Temperature Variations in HII Regions with KCWI and MUSE
We present direct Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Sulfur abundances, measured using electron temperatures (Te) from optical auroral lines for [NII], [OII], [SII], [OIII], and [SIII] for a sample of HII regions in nearby galaxies. The sample galaxies come from Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxies survey (PHANGS) and were observed using integral field spectrographs, KWCI and MUSE. Characterizing the variation of abundances across a galaxy's disk can improve our understanding of turbulence, gas flows and the impact of feedback on a galaxy's chemical evolution. While direct abundance measurements require constraints on Te, recent observations have revealed systematic variations in Te measured from ions that trace different HII region ionization zones. To investigate possible sources of Te variation, we compare the differences between our measured Te with HII region and interstellar medium environmental properties such as electron density, ionization parameter, CO velocity dispersion, stellar mass and ages. We find that the temperatures from [OII] and [SII] are over-estimated due to the presence of electron density inhomogeneities. We measure high [OIII] temperatures in regions with high CO velocity dispersion that may be explained by low-velocity shocks. We also find that the [NII] and [SIII] temperature are in good agreement. We calculate O, N, and S abundances and investigate the local dispersion in metallicity. We also present a comparison to indirect metallicities.