Revealing the nebular properties and Wolf-Rayet population of IC10 with
  Gemini/GMOS
  We present a deep imaging and spectroscopic survey of the Local Group
irregular galaxy IC10 using Gemini North and GMOS to unveil its global
Wolf-Rayet (WR) population. We obtain a star formation rate (SFR) of 0.045 +/-
0.023 Msun/yr, for IC10 from the nebular Halpha luminosity, which is comparable
to the SMC. We also present a revised nebular oxygen abundance of log(O/H) + 12
= 8.40 +/- 0.04, comparable to the LMC. It has previously been suggested that
for IC10 to follow the WR subtype-metallicity dependance seen in other Local
Group galaxies, a large WN population awaits discovery. Our search revealed 3
new WN stars, and 6 candidates awaiting confirmation, providing little evidence
to support this claim. The new global WR star total of 29 stars is consistent
with the LMC population when scaled to the reduced SFR of IC10. For
spectroscopically confirmed WR stars, the WC/WN ratio is lowered to 1.0,
however including all potential candidates, and assuming those unconfirmed to
be WN stars, would reduce the ratio to ~0.7. We attribute the high WC/WN ratio
to the high star formation surface density of IC10 relative to the Magellanic
Clouds, which enhances the frequency of high mass stars capable of producing WC
stars.
