No Arabic abstract
Using kinematic maps from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, we reveal that the majority of low-mass quenched galaxies exhibit coherent rotation in their stellar kinematics. Our sample includes all 39 quenched low-mass galaxies observed in the first year of MaNGA. The galaxies are selected with $M_{r} > -19.1$, stellar masses $10^{9}$ M$_{odot} < M_{star} < 5times10^{9}$ M$_{odot}$, EW$_{Halpha} <2$ AA, and all have red colours $(u-r)>1.9$. They lie on the size-magnitude and $sigma$-luminosity relations for previously studied dwarf galaxies. Just six ($15pm5.7$ per cent) are found to have rotation speeds $v_{e,rot} < 15$ km s$^{-1}$ at $sim1$ $R_{e}$, and may be dominated by pressure support at all radii. Two galaxies in our sample have kinematically distinct cores in their stellar component, likely the result of accretion. Six contain ionised gas despite not hosting ongoing star formation, and this gas is typically kinematically misaligned from their stellar component. This is the first large-scale Integral Field Unit (IFU) study of low mass galaxies selected without bias against low-density environments. Nevertheless, we find the majority of these galaxies are within $sim1.5$ Mpc of a bright neighbour ($M_{K} < -23$; or M$_{star} > 5times10^{10}$ M$_{odot}$), supporting the hypothesis that galaxy-galaxy or galaxy-group interactions quench star formation in low-mass galaxies. The local bright galaxy density for our sample is $rho_{proj} = 8.2pm2.0$ Mpc$^{-2}$, compared to $rho_{proj} = 2.1pm0.4$ Mpc$^{-2}$ for a star forming comparison sample, confirming that the quenched low mass galaxies are preferentially found in higher density environments.
Wolf-Rayet (WR) galaxies are a rare population of galaxies that host living high-mass stars during their WR phase (i.e. WR stars) and are thus expected to provide interesting constraints on the stellar Initial Mass Function, massive star formation, stellar evolution models, etc. Spatially resolved spectroscopy should in principle provide a more efficient way of identifying WR galaxies than single-fiber surveys of galactic centers such as SDSS-I & II, as WR stars should be more preferentially found in discs. Using IFU data from the ongoing SDSS-IV MaNGA survey, we have performed a thorough search for WR galaxies. We first identify H II regions in each datacube and carry out full spectral fitting to the stacked spectra. We then visually inspect the residual spectrum of each H II region and identify WR regions that present a significant blue bump at 4600-4750 A. The resulting WR catalog includes 267 WR regions of ~500pc (radius) sizes, distributed in 90 galaxies from the current sample of MaNGA (MaNGA Product Launch 7). We find WR regions are exclusively found in galaxies that show bluest colors and highest star formation rates for their mass. Most WR galaxies have late-type morphologies and show relatively large asymmetry in their images, implying that WR regions are more preferentially found in interacting/merging galaxies. We estimate the stellar mass function of WR galaxies and the mass-dependent detection rate. The detection rate of WR galaxies is typically ~2%, with weak dependence on stellar mass. This detection rate is about 40 times higher than previous studies with SDSS single fiber data, and by a factor of 2 lower than the CALIFA-based WR catalog. We make comparisons with SDSS and CALIFA studies, and conclude that different detection rates can be explained mainly by three factors: spatial coverage, spectral signal-to-noise ratio, and redshift ranges of the parent sample.
We use a sample of ~3000 galaxies from the MaNGA MPL-7 internal data release to study the alpha abundance distribution within low-redshift galaxies. We use the Lick index ratio Mgb/<Fe> as an alpha abundance indicator to study relationships between the alpha abundance distribution and galaxy properties such as effective stellar velocity dispersion within 0.3 effective radii (sigma_*), galaxy environment, and dark matter halo formation time (z_f). We find that (1) all galaxies show a tight correlation between Mgb/<Fe> and sigma_*; (2) `old (H_beta < 3) low-sigma_* galaxies in high local density environment and inner regions within galaxy groups are enhanced in Mgb/<Fe>, while `young (H_beta>3) galaxies and high-mass galaxies show no or less environmental dependence; (3) `old galaxies with high-z_f show enhanced Mgb/<Fe> over low- and medium-z_f; (4) Mgb/<Fe> gradients are close to zero and show dependence on sigma_* but no obvious dependence on the environment or z_f. Our study indicates that stellar velocity dispersion or galaxy mass is the main parameter driving the Mgb/<Fe> enhancement, although environments appear to have modest effects, particularly for low- and medium-mass galaxies.
We present a study on the stellar age and metallicity distributions for 1105 galaxies using the STARLIGHT software on MaNGA integral field spectra. We derive age and metallicity gradients by fitting straight lines to the radial profiles, and explore their correlations with total stellar mass M*, NUV-r colour and environments, as identified by both the large scale structure (LSS) type and the local density. We find that the mean age and metallicity gradients are close to zero but slightly negative, which is consistent with the inside-out formation scenario. Within our sample, we find that both the age and metallicity gradients show weak or no correlation with either the LSS type or local density environment. In addition, we also study the environmental dependence of age and metallicity values at the effective radii. The age and metallicity values are highly correlated with M* and NUV-r and are also dependent on LSS type as well as local density. Low-mass galaxies tend to be younger and have lower metallicity in low-density environments while high-mass galaxies are less affected by environment.
We investigate the environmental dependence of the local gas-phase metallicity in a sample of star-forming galaxies from the MaNGA survey. Satellite galaxies with stellar masses in the range $9<log(M_{*}/M_{odot})<10$ are found to be $sim 0.05 , mathrm{dex}$ higher in metallicity than centrals of similar stellar mass. Within the low-mass satellite population, we find that the interstellar medium (ISM) metallicity depends most strongly on the stellar mass of the galaxy that is central to the halo, though there is no obvious difference in the metallicity gradients. At fixed total stellar mass, the satellites of high mass ($M_{*}>10^{10.5} , mathrm{M_{odot}}$) centrals are $sim 0.1 , mathrm{dex}$ more metal rich than satellites of low-mass ($M_{*} < 10^{10} , mathrm{M_{odot}}$) centrals, controlling for local stellar mass surface density and gas fraction. Fitting a gas-regulator model to the spaxel data, we are able to account for variations in the local gas fraction, stellar mass surface density and local escape velocity-dependent outflows. We find that the best explanation for the metallicity differences is the variation in the average metallicity of accreted gas between different environments that depends on the stellar mass of the dominant galaxies in each halo. This is interpreted as evidence for the exchange of enriched gas between galaxies in dense environments that is predicted by recent simulations.
We study radial profiles in H$alpha$ equivalent width and specific star formation rate (sSFR) derived from spatially-resolved SDSS-IV MaNGA spectroscopy to gain insight on the physical mechanisms that suppress star formation and determine a galaxys location in the SFR-$rm M_star$ diagram. Even within the star-forming `main sequence, the measured sSFR decreases with stellar mass, both in an integrated and spatially-resolved sense. Flat sSFR radial profiles are observed for $rm log(M_star/ M_odot) < 10.5$, while star-forming galaxies of higher mass show a significant decrease in sSFR in the central regions, a likely consequence of both larger bulges and an inside-out growth history. Our primary focus is the green valley, constituted by galaxies lying below the star formation main sequence, but not fully passive. In the green valley we find sSFR profiles that are suppressed with respect to star-forming galaxies of the same mass at all galactocentric distances out to 2 effective radii. The responsible quenching mechanism therefore appears to affect the entire galaxy, not simply an expanding central region. The majority of green valley galaxies of $rm log(M_star/ M_odot) > 10.0$ are classified spectroscopically as central low-ionisation emission-line regions (cLIERs). Despite displaying a higher central stellar mass concentration, the sSFR suppression observed in cLIER galaxies is not simply due to the larger mass of the bulge. Drawing a comparison sample of star forming galaxies with the same $rm M_star$ and $rm Sigma_{1~kpc}$ (the mass surface density within 1 kpc), we show that a high $rm Sigma_{1~kpc}$ is not a sufficient condition for determining central quiescence.