The chemical composition of metal-poor emission-line galaxies in the Data Release 3 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

We have re-evaluated empirical expressions for the abundance determination of N, O, Ne, S, Cl, Ar and Fe taking into account the latest atomic data and constructing an appropriate grid of photoionization models with state-of-the art model atmospheres. Using these expressions we have derived heavy element abundances in the ~310 emission-line galaxies from the Data Release 3 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) with an observed Hβ flux F(Hβ) > 10-14 erg s-1 cm-2 and for which the [O iii] λ4363 emission line was detected at least at a 2σ level, allowing abundance determination by direct methods. The oxygen abundance 12 + log O/H of the SDSS galaxies lies in the range from ~7.1 (/30) to ~8.5 (0.7 ). The SDSS…

• NS
  National Science Foundation
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• AP
  Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
• PU
  Princeton University
• UO
  University of Chicago
• UO
  University of Washington
• JH
  Johns Hopkins University
• UO
  University of Pittsburgh
• UO
  University of Portsmouth
• NM
  New Mexico State University
• M
  Max-Planck-Gesellschaft
• MF
  Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie
• OD
  Observatoire de Paris, Université de Recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres
• UN
  U.S. Naval Observatory
• F
  Fermilab
• LA
  Los Alamos National Laboratory