A Theoretical Recalibration of the Extragalactic HiiRegion Sequence

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Abstract
We have theoretically recalibrated the extragalactic H II region sequence and defined the theoretical boundary between objects excited by stars, and those exited by active galactic nuclei. We used both the PEGASE and STARBURST99 codes to generate the SED of the young star clusters, and MAPPINGS 3 to compute photoionization models which include a self-consistent treatment of dust physics and chemical depletion. We find that the two stellar spectral synthesis codes are in excellent agreement with each other for zero-age instantaneous age models. Also, the extragalactic H II region sequence is reproduced remarkably well by our models, provided that the clusters which excite them are all rather young (7 < q < 108 (or U ≡ q/c in the range -3.5 < log U < -2.5).

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