Properties of the H II regions derived using integral field spectroscopy

Here we review some of our more recent results on the observed properties of HII regions using Integral Field Spectroscopy. In particular, we illustrate the use of this technique to study in detail the ionization conditions across the nebulae for galactic HII regions (focused on the Orion Nebula) and the statistical study of large samples of extragalactic HII regions. We review the reported new scaling relation between the local mass density and the oxygen abundance across the disk galaxies and the recently discovered universal gradient for oxygen abundances. We update our previous results the lack of a dependence of the Mass-Metallicity relation with the starformation rate, including new unpublished data. Finally we discuss on the relation between the ionization conditions in the nebulae and the underlying stellar population. All together our results indicate that disk galaxies present a chemical enrichment dominated by an inside-out growth scenario, with a less evident effect of radial migrations and/or outflows. © 2013 Sebastian F. Sánchez.
Sebastian F. Sanchez thanks thedirector ofCEFCA, M. Moles, for his sincere support of this project. This study makes use of the data provided by the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey (http://califa.caha.es/). CALIFA is the first legacy survey being performed at Calar Alto. The CALIFA collaboration would like to thank the IAA-CSIC and MPIA-MPG as major partners of the observatory and CAHA itself, for the unique access to telescope time and support in manpower and infrastructures. The CALIFA collaboration also thanks the CAHA staff for the dedication to this project. Based on observations collected at the Centro Astronomico Hispano Aleman (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by the Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie and the Instituto de Astrof sica de Andalucia (CSIC). The author thanks the anonymous referee for the many useful and detailed comments. The author also thanks P. Papaderos for the useful comments and the suggestions to clean and clarify the text. We thank the Viabilidad, Diseno, Acceso y Mejora funding program, ICTS-2009-10, for supporting the initial development of this project. He thanks the Plan Nacional de Investigacion y Desarrollo funding programs, AYA2010-22111-C03-03 and AYA2010-10904E, of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, for the support given to this project. He thanks the the Ramon y Cajal project RyC-2011-07590 of the spanish Ministerio de Econom a y Competitividad, for the support give to this project. He acknowledges suuport by the Grants nos. M100031241 and M100031201 of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR internal support program of international cooperation projects-PIPPMS) and by the Czech Republic program for the long-term development of the research institution no. RVO67985815.