Oxygen abundances in dwarf irregular galaxies and the metallicity - luminosity relationship

Abstract

The low-luminosity dwarf irregular galaxies are considered. The oxygen abundances in HII regions of dwarf irregular galaxies were recalculated from published spectra through the recently suggested P - method. It has been found that the metallicity of low-luminosity dwarf irregular galaxies, with a few exceptions, correlates well with galaxy luminosity. The dispersion of oxygen abundances around the metallicity - luminosity relationship increases with decreasing of galaxy luminosity, as was found by Richer and McCall (1995). No relationship between the oxygen abundance and the absolute magnitude in the blue band for irregular galaxies obtained by Hidalgo-Gamez and Olofsson (1998) can be explained by the large uncertainties in the oxygen abundances derived through the Te - method, that in turn can be explained by the large uncertainties in the measurements of the strengths of the weak oxygen line [OIII]4363 used in the Te - method.