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Quantifying the Ionising Flux escaping from the Ultra-luminous H II Regions in Four Spiral Galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2016

M. Rozas
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain 38200; mrozas@ll.iac.es
A. Zurita
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain 38200; azurita@ll.iac.es
J. E. Beckman
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain 38200; jeb@ll.iac.es
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Abstract

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There are two principal problems in explaining, in terms of the emission from OB stars, the ionisation of gas which emits diffuse Hα in spiral galaxies. One is the long pathlength which the ionising photons need to traverse to reach their objectives, the other is whether sufficient photons can escape from within the H II regions which surround the hot stars. Here we treat the second point, assuming that the H II regions above a certain threshold luminosity are density bounded. We calculate the escaping Lyman continuum (Lyc) fluxes from the density bounded regions in four galaxies, and show that in each of them this is easily suffcient to produce the measured diffuse Hα emission.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1998

References

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