Accurate chemical compositions of star-forming regions provide a critical diagnostic tool for characterizing the star formation history and gas flows that regulate galaxy formation. However, the abundance discrepancy factor (ADF) between measurements derived from the “direct” optical electron temperature (Te) method and those from recombination lines (RLs) introduces a ∼0.2 dex systematic uncertainty in the oxygen abundance. The degree of uncertainty for other elements is unknown. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of O++ and N+ ion abundances using optical and far-infrared (far-IR) spectra of a star-forming region within the nearby dwarf galaxy Haro 3, which exhibits a typical ADF. Assuming homogeneous conditions, the far-IR emission indicates an oxygen abundance higher than that derived using the Te method and consistent with the RL value, as expected from temperature fluctuations, whereas the far-IR nitrogen abundance is too large to be explained by temperature fluctuations. A two-phase analytical model reveals that differential dust obscuration associated with temperature inhomogeneity is likely required to explain all the emission-line ratios, and that the total oxygen metallicity of two phases is consistent with the RL metallicity. Our findings underscore the critical importance of resolving the cause of abundance discrepancies and understanding the biases between different metallicity methods. This work presents a promising methodology, and we identify further approaches to address the dominant sources of uncertainty.
Joint Optical and Infrared Observations of Nitrogen and Oxygen Reveal the Dust-obscured Gas in Haro 3
Creators
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Chen 陈, Yuguang 昱光1, 2
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Jones, Tucker2
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Sanders, Ryan L.3
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Fadda, Dario4
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Sutter, Jessica5
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Minchin, Robert6
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Prusinski, Nikolaus Z.7
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Rhoades, Sunny2
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GC, Keerthi Vasan2, 8
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Steidel, Charles C.7
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Huntzinger, Erin2
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Kelly, Paige2
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Berg, Danielle A.9
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Bresolin, Fabio10
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Herrera-Camus, Rodrigo11, 12
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Rickards Vaught, Ryan J.4
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Roberts-Borsani, Guido13
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Senchyna, Peter8
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Spilker, Justin S.14
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Stark, Daniel P.15
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Weiner, Benjamin16
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Martin, D. Christopher7
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Matuszewski, Mateusz7
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McGurk, Rosalie C.17
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Neill, James D.7
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1.
Chinese University of Hong Kong
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2.
University of California, Davis
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3.
University of Kentucky
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4.
Space Telescope Science Institute
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5.
Whitman College
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National Radio Astronomy Observatory
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California Institute of Technology
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8.
Carnegie Observatories
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The University of Texas at Austin
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
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University of Concepción
- 12. Millennium Nucleus for Galaxies, Concepción, Chile
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13.
University College London
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14.
Texas A&M University
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15.
University of California, Berkeley
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16.
University of Arizona
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17.
W.M. Keck Observatory
Abstract
Copyright and License
© 2026. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society. Original content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
Acknowledgement
Y.C. and T.J. gratefully acknowledge support for this work from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under grant No. 80NSSC23K1132. Y.C. is supported by a Direct Grant for Research (grant No. C0010-4053720) from the Faculty of Science of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. R.H.-C. thanks the Max Planck Society for support under the Partner Group project “The Baryon Cycle in Galaxies” between the Max Planck for Extraterrestrial Physics and the Universidad de Concepción. R.H-C. also gratefully acknowledge financial support from ANID - MILENIO - NCN2024_112 and ANID BASAL FB210003. This work is based on data obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. The authors wish to recognize and acknowledge the very significant cultural role and reverence that the summit of Maunakea has always had within the indigenous Hawaiian community. We are most fortunate to have the opportunity to conduct observations from this mountain. Results in this paper are based on observations made with the NASA/DLR Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). SOFIA is jointly operated by the Universities Space Research Association, Inc. (USRA), under NASA contract NAS2-97001, and the Deutsches SOFIA Institut (DSI) under DLR contract 50-OK-0901 to the University of Stuttgart. Herschel is an ESA space observatory with science instruments provided by European-led Principal Investigator consortia and with important participation from NASA. The authors thank the W. M. Keck Observatory staff, the SOFIA observatory staff, and the Herschel Data Archive for making this study possible. Some pilot studies of this program were conducted on the Palomar 200 inch telescope. We thank the Caltech Optical Observatories for providing the support. The authors would like to thank Karin M. Sandstrom for her contribution to the planning of this work.
Facilities
Keck:II - KECK II Telescope (KCWI), SOFIA - Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy (FIFI-LS), Herschel - European Space Agency's Herschel space observatory (PACS).
Software References
astropy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013, 2018, 2022), emcee (D. Foreman-Mackey et al. 2013), PyNeb (V. Luridiana et al. 2015), KCWI DRP (https://github.com/Keck-DataReductionPipelines/KcwiDRP), SOSPEX (https://github.com/darioflute/sospex), CWITools (D. O’Sullivan & Y. Chen 2020), KcwiKit (https://github.com/yuguangchen1/KcwiKit.git), Scientific Color Maps (F. Crameri 2018).
Files
Chen_2026_ApJ_1000_150.pdf
Additional details
Additional titles
- Alternative title
- Joint Optical and Infrared Observations of N and O Reveal the Dust-Obscured Gas in Haro 3
- Alternative title
- Robust Nitrogen and Oxygen Abundances of Haro 3 from Optical and Infrared Emission
Related works
- Is new version of
- Discussion Paper: arXiv:2405.18476 (arXiv)
Funding
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- 80NSSC23K1132
- Chinese University of Hong Kong
- C0010-4053720
- Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo
- NCN2024_112
- Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo
- FB210003
- W. M. Keck Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- NAS2-97001
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. (DLR)
- 50-OK-0901
Dates
- Submitted
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2025-10-03
- Accepted
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2026-02-16
- Available
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2026-03-19Published
Caltech Custom Metadata
- Caltech groups
- Astronomy Department , Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy (PMA) , Physics Department
- Publication Status
- Published