Predicted emission lines from giant HII regions ionized by aging star clusters

We have computed theoretical models of the emission line spectra of giant extragalactic HII regions (GEHR) in which a single star duster is assumed to be responsible for the ionization. Ionizing clusters, of different masses and metallicities, were constructed assuming that they formed in a single burst and with a Salpeter Initial Mass Function. Their evolution was then followed in detail up to an age of 5.4 Myr after which they lack the high energy photons needed to keep the regions ionized. The integrated spectral energy distribution of every cluster has been computed for a set of discrete ages representative of relevant phases of their evolution and have been processed by the photoionization code CLOUDY, in order to obtain the corresponding emission line spectra of the ionized gas at optical and infrared wavelengths. A wide range of initial compositions, spanning from about 1/20 (Z=0.001) to 2.5 solar (Z=0.05), and total masses, between about 1-6 10(4) M. has been considered. Gas and stars are assumed to have the same metallicity and this has been taken into account both in the stellar evolution and atmosphere models and in the nebular gas producing a consistent set of models. In this paper we present the synthetic emission line spectra of the ionized regions which are discussed in detail in Garcia-Vargas et al. (1995).