[Ar III]/[O III] and [S III]/[O III]: Well-behaved oxygen abundance indicators for HII regions and star forming galaxies

Abstract

We propose two statistical methods to derive oxygen abundances in HII regions and star forming galaxies and calibrate them with a sample of several hundred giant HII regions in spiral and blue compact galaxies as well as of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We show the advantages of our new abundance indicators over previous ones. © ESO 2006.