Recalibration of Pagel's method for HII regions considering the thermal
  structure, the ionization structure, and the depletion of O into dust grains
  Using a sample of 28 HII regions from the literature with measured
temperature inhomogeneity parameter, t^2, we present a statistical correction
to the chemical abundances determined with the Te(4363/5007) method. We used
the t^2 values to correct the oxygen gaseous abundances and consider the oxygen
depletion into dust to calculate the total abundances for these objects. This
correction is used to obtain a new calibration of Pagel's strong-line method,
R_{23}, to determine oxygen abundances in HII regions. Our new calibration
simultaneously considers the temperature structure, the ionization structure,
and the fraction of oxygen depleted into dust grains. Previous calibrations in
the literature have included one or two of these factors; this is the first
time all three are taken into account. This recalibration conciliates the
systematic differences among the temperatures found from different methods. We
find that the total correction due to thermal inhomogeneities and dust
depletion amounts to an increase in the O/H ratio of HII regions by factors of
1.7 to 2.2 (or 0.22 to 0.35 dex). This result has important implications in
various areas of astrophysics such as the study of the higher end of the
initial mass function, the star formation rate, and the mass-metallicity
relation of galaxies, among others.
