Uncovering additional clues to galaxy evolution. I. Dwarf irregular galaxies in the field

In order to recognize environmental effects on the evolution of dwarf galaxies in clusters of galaxies, it is first necessary to quantify the properties of objects that have evolved in relative isolation. With oxygen abundance as the gauge of metallicity, two key diagnostics of the evolution of dwarf irregular galaxies in the field are reexamined: the metallicity-luminosity relationship and the metallicity-gas fraction relationship. Gas fractions are evaluated from the masses of luminous components only, i.e., constituents of the nucleogenetic pool. Results from new optical spectroscopy obtained for H II regions in five dwarf irregular galaxies in the local volume are incorporated into a new analysis of field dwarfs with [O III] lambda;4363 detections and good distances. The updated fit to the metallicity-luminosity relationship is consistent with results reported in the literature. The fit to the metallicity-gas fraction relation shows an excellent correlation consistent with expectations of the simple ``closed box'' model of chemical evolution. The simplest explanation consistent with the data is that flow rates are zero, although the observations allow for the possibility of modest flows. The derived oxygen yield is one-quarter of the value for the solar neighborhood