# Emission-line Helium Abundances in Highly Obscured Nebulae

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Helium abundances are fundamental tests of galactic nucleosynthesis (Pagel 1997, Shaver et al. 1983), the relationship between helium and metal abundance (dY/dZ), and its extrapolation to the primordial He/H ratio (Torres-Peimbert et al. 1989; Skillman et al. 1998). The latter is a basic test of Big Bang nucleosynthesis (Olive et al. 1997) and so has a cosmological imperative. Great precision is needed for cosmological tests since the range of He/H produced in different models of the Big Bang is not large (Olive & Steigman 1995). High accuracy is possible since ratios of recombination lines are relatively straightforward to convert into ionic abundance ratios (Peimbert 1975; Benjamin et al. 1999).

Several complications enter when great precision is needed. Collisional excitation of optical helium lines can be important in denser objects (Kingdon & Ferland 1996; Benjamin et al. 1999). Accurate quantal calculations of the relevant rates now exist, and this can be taken into account if the density can be determined. Line transport effects can be significant for higher n radio lines (Goldberg 1966; Brocklehurst 1970). The last, and most serious, complication is the “Ionization Correction Factor” (ICF), the correction for the fact that (unobservable) atomic helium can be present in regions of a nebula where hydrogen is ionized (Osterbrock 1989, Peimbert 1975). Again, other spectroscopic evidence, especially optical forbidden lines (Mathis 1982), can determine the ICF.

Unfortunately it is not possible to convert the ionic He<sup>+</sup>/H<sup>+</sup> ratio into a total He/H abundance without knowing the ICF, and so far only optical lines have been used for this. Radio and IR emission lines make it possible to map He<sup>+</sup>/H<sup>+</sup> across the Galaxy, or within heavily obscured environments such as starburst galaxies (Shaver et al. 1983; Peimbert et al. 1988; Peimbert et al. 1992; Simpson et al. 1995; Afflerbach et al. 1996; 1997; Rubin et al. 1998). It will soon be possible to routinely obtain high quality mid IR spectra of heavily obscured objects. Methods of determining the He ICF from IR data alone, when other details of the source (density, geometry, stellar properties) are unknown, are needed. The following investigates several line ratios that help make this possible

## 2 CALCULATIONS

### 2.1 The Helium ICF

Relative intensities of HeI to HI emission lines are proportional to the ratio He<sup>+</sup>/H<sup>+</sup>, i.e.,

$$\frac{I(HeI)}{I(HI)}=f(n_e,T_e)\frac{He^+}{H^+}$$
(1)   
(Osterbrock 1989), where $`f(n_e,T_e)`$ incorporates the microphysics of the line formation process (most recently summarized by Benjamin et al. 1999). The helium ionization correction factor (ICF) accounts for the presence of atomic helium in regions where hydrogen is ionized, and can be defined such that

$$\frac{He}{H}=\frac{He^+}{H^+}(1+\mathrm{ICF}).$$
(2)   
The ionic pair on the right hand side of Equation 1 can be measured with great precision; the problem is to find a method to predict the ICF. The ICF is significant when the stellar continuum is too soft to maintain the helium ionization across the hydrogen Strömgren sphere. We expect the ICF to be positive in most cases, since the He<sup>+</sup> volume is generally smaller than the H<sup>+</sup> volume due to the higher ionization potential of He. It can be negative for a very hard continuum source since the photoionization cross section of atomic helium is larger than hydrogen at high energies (Shields 1974). Photoionization models can predict the ionic fractions $`A^+/A`$ for any set of parameters and geometry. Defining a volume mean ionization fraction as $`<A^+/A>`$, the helium ICF is given by

$$\mathrm{ICF}=\frac{H^+}{H}/\frac{He^+}{He}1.$$
(3)   
Note that this allows for the possible presence of He<sup>+2</sup> in addition to He<sup>o</sup>. This will be the y-axis in most of the figures below.

### 2.2 An Approach

The aim of this paper is to identify line ratios that can indicate the ICF using IR data alone. To be robust a method must not depend on details. Our approach is to consider photoionization simulations over the broadest possible range of physical parameters, and then look for trends that are present in the resulting data set. We took a similar approach to identify ways to determine the bolometric luminosity using IR data alone (Bottorff et al. 1998).

We use the development version of the plasma simulation code Cloudy, last described by Ferland et al. (1998). The code used here is in excellent agreement with the methods, approximations, and results described in that review.

We concentrate on HII regions, since these best track the chemical evolution of the ISM. We use Orion abundances (Rubin et al. 1991; Osterbrock et al. 1992, Baldwin et al. 1991). A few of the abundances by number are He/H = 0.095, C/H = 3.0(-4), N/H = 7.0 (-5), O/H=4.0 (-4), Ne/H=6.0 (-5) and Ar/H =3.0 (-6), although all of the lightest thirty elements are included in our calculation.

The assumed composition has little effect on our conclusions. As a test we computed a series of models in which the abundances were decreased to the very low metalicities appropriate for low-mass galaxies. The main effect of the composition on the emission line spectrum is to change the equilibrium electron temperature (see Shields and Kennicutt 1995). The infrared lines we use arise within the ground term of each ion, and so have very small excitation potentials and little temperature dependence (essentially $`T^{1/2}`$ for each line, so that temperature effects cancel in the ratio). We compare only ratios involving different ionization stages of the same element.

We model a blister geometry, in which the HII region is an illuminated layer on the face of a molecular cloud. Specifically we assume constant density, composition, and dust to gas ratio, across this layer. We use the Orion grains and the physics described by Baldwin et al. (1991). These assumptions about the grains introduce dependencies that are small compared to the dispersion of results introduced by parameters we do vary, which are described next.

### 2.3 Free Parameters

The remaining parameters are the effective temperature and atmosphere of the ionizing star, the gas density, and either the distance of the star to the layer or the ionization parameter $`U`$. The ionization parameter is the dimensionless ratio of the density of hydrogen-ionizing photons at the illuminated face of the cloud, $`\mathrm{\Phi }(H)/c`$, to the hydrogen density $`n_H`$,

$$U=\frac{\mathrm{\Phi }(H)}{n_Hc}.$$
(4)   
The gas is more ionized, and the ICF tends to be smaller, for larger values of $`U`$.

We expect that the helium ICF will be most sensitive to the stellar temperature and $`U`$, since these can selectively change the He<sup>+</sup>/H<sup>+</sup> ratio. The density has little affect on the ionization of helium relative to hydrogen when $`U`$ is held constant, although density does affect intensities of the IR lines when they are collisionally deexcited.

The ICF is most sharply dependent on the intensity of the helium-ionizing stellar continuum ($`h\nu >1.8`$ Ryd) relative to the hydrogen ionizing continuum ($`h\nu >1`$ Ryd). Figure 1 shows the four types of ionizing continua we use here, all at an effective temperature of 35,000 K and normalized to the same number of hydrogen ionizing photons. The first is a simple black body, which we take as a reference. The Atlas LTE plane parallel atmosphere (Kurucz 1991) is considerably softer than the blackbody at helium-ionizing energies. The Mihalas (1972) NLTE plane parallel atmosphere is harder than the blackbody at the highest energies, and depressed at intermediate energies, due to the opacity of its heavy pseudo-element. Finally, the CoStar NLTE extended atmosphere (Schaerer et al. 1996a, b) is the hardest of the set, with a flux equal to or exceeding the blackbody over much of the helium-ionizing continuum. Of these four, the CoStar atmospheres are the only that include winds and full NLTE, and so may be most realistic.

### 2.4 Two Pairs of Line Rations

The most likely candidates for robust ICF indicators are pairs of IR lines of different ionization stages of the same element. The ionization potentials of both stages must be greater than that of hydrogen to ensure that the lines form in the HII region (where the HeI and HI lines form) and not the background PDR (CI recombination lines form here, Tielens & Hollenbach 1985). Ideally the element should be abundant (and not sharply depleted in the ISM or HII Regions) and the lines in the pair should have similar critical densities (so that the electron density need not be well known).

The most promising possibilities are the two noble gasses Ne and Ar. The first ion of each has an $`np^5{}_{}{}^{2}P`$ ground term and ionization potentials of 1.585 Ryd and 1.158 Ryd for Ne and Ar respectively. These produce the lines \[Ne II\] $`\lambda `$ 12.8 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ and \[Ar II\] $`\lambda `$ 6.9 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ with critical densities ($`\mathrm{log}n`$ cm<sup>-3</sup>) of 5.8 and 5.6. The second ion of each has an $`np^4{}_{}{}^{3}P`$ ground term, ionization potentials of 3.010 Ryd and 2.031 Ryd respectively, with each ion producing a pair of lines: \[NeIII\] $`\lambda \lambda `$ 36 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$, 15.6 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ (critical densities, $`\mathrm{log}n`$, of 4.7 and 5.4) and \[ArIII\] $`\lambda \lambda `$ 9 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$, 21 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ (critical densities 5.5 and 4.7). We expect the \[NeIII\] 15.6 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$/\[NeII\] 12.8 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ and \[ArIII\] 9 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$/\[Ar II\] 6.9 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ ratios to be the best ICF indicators because of the similarities in their critical densities, with the Ar ratio the very best in this respect. The Ne ions have larger ionization potentials than the Ar ions, so the Ne line ratios may be a sharper indicator of the level of helium ionization.

## 3 RESULTS

### 3.1 Results for Single Stellar Temperatures

Figure 2 shows representative results for two stellar temperatures, 30,000 K (the upper pair of panels) and 40,000 K (the lower pair). CoStar atmospheres were used. This temperature range is representative of objects with non-trivial He ICFs — stars much hotter than 40,000 K easily sustain the helium ionization, while stars cooler than 30,000 K do not ionize helium at all. The ionization parameter was varied between $`U=10^4`$ and 10<sup>-1</sup> to more than encompass the range represented by spectra of observed HII regions. The HII region density was varied between a density low enough to be in the asymptotic low-density limit (10 cm<sup>-3</sup>) and the high density of 10<sup>6</sup> cm<sup>-3</sup>. Most HII regions lie below this high density, and so this range should encompass nearly all objects. The range of densities is broad enough to ensure that the full consequences of collisional deexcitation of the forbidden lines occur in many of the models.

The helium ICF is shown in the left pair of panels. The dependence on the stellar temperature is striking. The ICF ranges between 2 and 20 for the cool star, but is small (and often negative) for the hot star. A negative ICF occurs when the incident continuum is so hard that penetrating high-energy radiation sustains the ionization of He in regions where H is neutral (Shields 1974). The ICF has a sharp dependence on $`U`$ and is nearly independent of the density. This is because the ionization parameter sets the overall ionization of the nebula. The very weak density dependence is due to collisional effects altering the fraction of helium triplet decays to ground - these produce hydrogen-ionizing radiation and details can slightly change the resulting geometry.

The predicted \[NeIII\] 36 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$/\[Ne II\] 12.8 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ intensity ratios are shown in the right pair of panels. Only one of the four line pairs we consider is shown since the dependencies it exhibits are typical of the others. The line ratio has an overall dependence on $`U`$ that is similar to the ICF — higher $`U`$ produces higher ratios. This is the underlying correlation we will exploit in the following.

Unfortunately the line ratio also has a significant density dependence for $`n>10^4`$ cm<sup>-3</sup>, densities high enough to de-excite one but not both of the lines. The line ratio is density independent at densities substantially lower or higher than the critical densities of both lines. It is clear from Figure 2 that gas with densities $`n10^4`$ cm<sup>-3</sup> will introduce dispersion in the correlations we show next.

### 3.2 Results for a Wide Range of Stellar Continua

Grids similar to those shown in Figure 2 were computed for all four types of stellar continua shown in Figure 1. A broad range of temperatures was used for each stellar atmosphere — 25,000 K to 50,000 K for the black body, 30,000 K to 50,000 K for CoStar, 30,000 K to 45,000 K for Atlas, and 30,000 K to 40,000 K for Mihalas. The ionization parameter and density were varied over the ranges shown in Figure 2. This resulted in a set of well over 10<sup>4</sup> independent photoionization simulations. The results for \[NeIII\]/\[NeII\] are shown in Figure 3 while Figure 4 shows \[ArIII\]/\[ArII\]. Results are presented with the observable line ratio increasing to the right, and with the helium ICF, the quantity we want to predict, as the dependent variable.

All four of the line ratios show a negative correlation: the helium ICF generally increases as the line ratio decreases below a certain value. The line ratio decreases with decreasing levels of ionization, which in turn can be due to either lower $`U`$ or stellar temperature (Figure 2). This decreased ionization correlates with larger amounts of atomic helium in the HII region, and so a larger He ICF.

The range of densities we consider causes a large part of the scatter that is present in the figures. The line ratio can be small but the ionization of the gas high if the double ionized species is collisionally de-excited. This explains why the \[Ar III\] 9 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$/\[Ar II\] 6.9 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ ratio has the least scatter — these lines happen to have nearly identical critical densities. This line ratio could actually be used to deduce pathologically high values of the helium ICF.

For each line pair the ICF is small above some critical value of the ratio. This suggests an observational approach. One could easily identify those objects for which this ratio is exceeded, and so, for whatever reason, have a small ICF. For these the helium abundance is nearly equal to the measured He<sup>+</sup>/H<sup>+</sup> ratio. The critical line ratios are greater than unity. In some cases the weaker line might be unobservable, but the lower limit to the ratio is still of value to this approach.

The ICF must be known to much better than 5% accuracy to test Big Bang nucleosynthesis. Figure 5 shows an expanded view of all four line ratios, with a vastly expanded scale for the helium ICF. It is clear that a significant amount of dispersion, at the several percent level, is still present. Note also that accurate determination of line ratios greater than ten may be difficult. It is also clear that the harder continua, the Mihalas and CoStar continua (both plotted as open symbols), generally produce a *negative* ICF. If the CoStar continua are representative of the spectra of windy stars, then negative ICFs could be a major concern — the helium abundance would be overestimated if this were not taken into account.

## 4 Conclusions

* We have identified four IR line pairs that are sensitive to the helium ionization correction factor. These track the ionization of helium because they are formed from adjacent stages of ionization of the same element. These lines could be combined with radio or IR recombination lines to deduce a total He/H abundance ratio.
* For each line pair the helium ICF is smaller than several percent when the ratio is above a certain critical intensity ratio. Below this intensity ratio the helium ICF may still be small in some cases (usually high density), but other information, from other emission lines, would be needed to make progress.
* Three of the line ratio/ICF correlations have large dispersion for a given line ratio when the ICF is significant, due to differences in the critical densities for each line. The exception is the \[ArIII\] 9 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$/\[ArII\] 6.9 $`\mathrm{\mu m}`$ ratio since these lines happen to have very similar critical densities. For this pair a rough estimate of the ICF can be made from this line ratio alone. In all four cases, the estimated ICF could be made more accurate were other spectroscopic evidence available.
* The prediction continua of the most recent generation of windy stellar atmospheres (CoStar: Schaerer et al. 1996a, b), are sufficiently hard as to produce a *negative* helium ICF. An observational analysis that did not allow for this possibility would overestimate the helium abundance.

GJF thanks CITA for its hospitality during a sabbatical year, and acknowledges support from the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada through CITA. DRB also acknowledges financial support from NSERC. Research in Nebular Astrophysics at the University of Kentucky is supported by grants from NSF and NASA. We thank the referee for a careful reading of the manuscript.