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Description
We examine how the cosmic environment affects the chemical evolution of galaxies in the universe by comparing the N/O ratio of dwarf galaxies in voids with that of dwarf galaxies in denser regions. Ratios of the forbidden [OIII] and [SII] transitions provide estimates of a region's electron temperature and number density. We estimate the abundances of oxygen and nitrogen using these temperature and density estimates and the emission-line fluxes [OII]3727, [OIII]4959,5007, and [NII]6548,6584 with the direct T_e_ method. Using spectroscopic observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7, we are able to estimate the N/O ratio in 42 void dwarf galaxies and 89 dwarf galaxies in denser regions. The N/O ratio for void dwarfs (M_r_>-17) is slightly lower (~12%) than for dwarf galaxies in denser regions. We also estimate the nitrogen and oxygen abundances of 2050 void galaxies and 3883 galaxies in denser regions with M_r_>-20. These somewhat brighter galaxies (but still fainter than L_*_) also display similar minor shifts in the N/O ratio. The shifts in the average and median element abundance values in all absolute magnitude bins studied are in the same direction, suggesting that the large-scale environment may influence the chemical evolution of galaxies. We discuss possible causes of such a large-scale environmental dependence of the chemical evolution of galaxies, including retarded star formation and a higher ratio of dark matter halo mass to stellar mass in void galaxies.
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