Herschel Dwarf Galaxy Survey PACS spectroscopy

We characterize the physical conditions (gas densities, radiation fields, porosity) in those galaxies and investigate correlations with metallicity or star-formation activity. We find that the lower-metallicity galaxies tend to have higher ionization parameters and galaxies with higher specific star-formation rates have higher gas densities.

The [CII] emission arises mainly from PDRs and the contribution from the ionized gas phases is small, typically less than 30% of the observed emission. We also find a correlation, with scatter, between metallicity and both the PDR covering factor and the fraction of [CII] from the ionized gas. Overall, the low metal abundances appear to be driving most of the changes in the ISM structure and conditions of these galaxies, and not the high specific star-formation rates.