Bibcode
Esteban, C.; Peimbert, M.
Bibliographical reference
Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.300, p.78
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8
1995
Journal
Citations
44
Refereed citations
36
Description
We present stellar population models for starbursts in a sample of
eleven Wolf-Rayet galaxies. Taking into account the observational data
available, we try to reconstruct the number of Wolf-Rayet stars observed
and estimate the number of type II supernovae that have exploded in the
ionizing cluster. Using the stellar yields of the most recent stellar
evolutionary models for massive stars, we derive the expected chemical
enrichment in helium, oxygen and nitrogen produced by the burst on the
surrounding ionized gas. The results of this modelling indicate that
since the helium and nitrogen production accounts for a fraction of the
total content of the H II regions in these elements - implying the
occurrence of previous star formation events in the history of the
parent galaxies -, the oxygen appears strongly overproduced in most of
the objects. This fact and the correlation between the supernova rates
derived for the bursts and their corresponding oxygen overproduction as
well as the large volume filling factors expected for the hot gas that
fills the supernova remnants, suggest the action of differential mass
loss from the H II regions that could lead to galactic winds. We find
that the chemical evolution of WR galaxies in the Y vs. N/H diagram
appears to run parallel to the fit of the observational data for
"normal" H II galaxies obtained by Pagel et al. (1992). Moreover, the
pollution by the present-day population of Wolf-Rayet stars is unable to
explain the apparently abnormal position of some Wolf-Rayet galaxies on
that diagram. We find that the effect of temperature fluctuations in the
determination of the electron temperature of the ionized gas probably
due to the presence of shocks could be an alternative explanation for
this problem.