S. Duarte Puertas, J. M. Vilchez, J. Iglesias-Páramo, L. Drissen, C. Kehrig, T. Martin, E. Pérez-Montero, A. Arroyo-Polonio
Published 2020-11-19, Accepted for publication in A&A, 30 pages, 17 figures, and 3 tables
Based on SITELLE spectroscopy, we studied the ionised gas emission for the175 H$\alpha$ emission regions in the Stephan's Quintet (SQ). A detailedanalysis is performed of the star formation rate (SFR), oxygen abundance (O/H),and nitrogen-to-oxygen abundance ratio (N/O) of the SQ regions, to explore theprovenance and evolution of this complex structure. According to the BPTdiagram, we found 91 HII, 17 composite, and 7 active galactic nucleus-likeregions in SQ. Several regions are compatible with fast shocks models without aprecursor for solar metallicity and low density (n=0.1 cm$^{-3}$), withvelocities between 175 - 300 km s$^{-1}$. We derived the total SFR in SQ(log(SFR/M$_\odot\,yr^{-1}$=0.496); starburst A and B provide 28% and 9% of thetotal SFR, and 45% comes from the regions with a radial velocity lower than6160 km s$^{-1}$. For this reason, we assume that the material prior to thecollision with the new intruder (NI) does not show a high SFR, and therefore SQwas apparently quenched. When considering the integrated SFR for the whole SQand the NI, we found that both zones have a SFR consistent with those obtainedin the SDSS star-forming galaxies. At least two chemically different gascomponents cohabit in SQ where, on average, the regions with high radialvelocities (v$>$6160 km s$^{-1}$) have lower values of O/H and N/O than thosewith low radial velocities (v$\leq$6160 km s$^{-1}$). The values found for theline ratios, O/H, and N/O for the southern debris region and the northernmosttidal tail, are compatible with regions belonging to the outer part of thegalaxies. We highlight the presence of inner-outer variation for O/H and someemission line ratios along the NI strands and the young tidal tail southstrand. Finally, the SQ H$\alpha$ regions are outside the galaxies because theinteractions have dispersed the gas to the peripheral zones.