Integral Field Spectroscopy and Multi-Wavelength Imaging of the Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 5668: An Unusual Flattening in Metallicity Gradient

Marino, R. A.; Paz, A. Gil de; Castillo-Morales, A.; Muñoz-Mateos, J. C.; Sánchez, S. F.; Pérez‐González, Pablo G.; Gallego, J.; Zamorano, J.; Alonso‐Herrero, A.; Boissier, S.

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/754/1/61

Cited by 38 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 144 publications

(189 reference statements)

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“…This change in the slope of the radial gradient of oxygen abundance has been reported by several authors (e.g. Bresolin et al 2009;Marino et al 2012;Bresolin et al 2012). If true, migration is an efficient mechanism to intermix the gas and stellar population properties of galaxies, and even to enrich the intergalactic medium (Sánchez-Blázquez et al 2009, for a different explanation to the surface-brightness truncation).…”

Section: Radial Gradientssupporting

confidence: 71%

“…Finally, only those H ii regions with measured Hβ emission line detected at >3σ significance were considered for further analysis (e.g. Marino et al 2012), although they were not masked out and their spectra were not set to zero. This criteria was included to consider only those regions with good line diagnostic ratios and well defined Balmer ratio, both required in further analysis.…”

Section: Deriving the Main Properties Of The Emission Linesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some cases the physical scales of the galaxies (i.e., the radii in kpc) are used, (e.g. Marino et al 2012). In others the scale-length are normalized to the R 25 radii, i.e., the radii at which the surface brightness in the B-band reach the value of 25 mag/arcsec 2 (e.g.…”

Section: Radial Gradientsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Integral field spectroscopy of a sample of nearby galaxies

Sánchez

Rosales-Ortega

Marino

et al. 2012

A&A

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188

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We analyse the spectroscopic properties of thousands of H ii regions identified in 38 face-on spiral galaxies. All galaxies were observed out to 2.4 effective radii using integral field spectroscopy (IFS) over the wavelength range ∼3700 to ∼6900 Å. The near uniform sample has been assembled from the PPAK IFS Nearby Galaxy (PINGS) survey and a sample described in Paper I. We develop a new automatic procedure to detect H ii regions, based on the contrast of the Hα intensity maps extracted from the datacubes. Once detected, the algorithm provides us with the integrated spectra of each individual segmented region. In total, we derive good quality spectroscopic information for ∼2600 independent H ii regions/complexes. This is by far the largest H ii region survey of its kind. Our selection criteria and the use of 3D spectroscopy guarantee that we cover the regions in an unbiased way. A welltested automatic decoupling procedure has been applied to remove the underlying stellar population, deriving the main properties (intensity, dispersion and velocity) of the strongest emission lines in the considered wavelength range (covering from [O ii] λ3727 to [S ii] λ6731). A final catalogue of the spectroscopic properties of H ii regions has been created for each galaxy, which includes information on morphology, spiral structure, gas kinematics, and surface brightness of the underlying stellar population. In the current study, we focus on the understanding of the average properties of the H ii regions and their radial distributions. We find a significant change in the ionisation characteristics of H ii regions within r < 0.25 r e due to contamination from sources with different ionising characteristics, as we discuss. We find that the gas-phase oxygen abundance and the Hα equivalent width present a negative and positive gradient, respectively. The distribution of slopes is statistically compatible with a random Gaussian distribution around the mean value, if the radial distances are measured in units of the respective effective radius. No difference in the slope is found for galaxies of different morphologies, e.g. barred/non-barred, grand-design/flocculent. Therefore, the effective radius is a universal scale length for gradients in the evolution of galaxies. Some properties have a large variance across each object and between galaxies (e.g. electron density) without a clear characteristic value. But other properties are well described by an average value either galaxy by galaxy or among the different galaxies (e.g. dust attenuation).

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Section: Radial Gradientssupporting

confidence: 71%

Section: Deriving the Main Properties Of The Emission Linesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Integral field spectroscopy of a sample of nearby galaxies

Sánchez

Rosales-Ortega

Marino

et al. 2012

A&A

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189

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“…However, recently it has been found that some spiral galaxies show lower (higher) oxygen abundance val-ues in the inner (outer) regions than that expected according to the observed negative gradients. This results in a nearly flat distribution or even a drop towards the centre (Belley & Roy 1992;Rosales-Ortega et al 2011;Sánchez et al 2012bSánchez et al , 2014Sánchez-Menguiano et al 2016b;Zinchenko et al 2016), and an abundance flattening or even an increase in the outermost parts (Martin & Roy 1995;Vilchez & Esteban 1996;Roy & Walsh 1997;van Zee et al 1998;Rosales-Ortega et al 2011;Bresolin et al 2012;Marino et al 2012;López-Sánchez et al 2015;Sánchez-Menguiano et al 2016b;Belfiore et al 2017).…”

Section: The Shape Of the Abundance Profilesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Peimbert 1979;Shaver et al 1983;Vila-Costas & Edmunds 1992;Zaritsky et al 1994;Kennicutt et al 2003;Pilyugin et al 2004;Bresolin et al 2009b;Rosales-Ortega et al 2011;Marino et al 2012;Sánchez et al 2012b;Pilyugin et al 2014;Sánchez et al 2014;Sánchez-Menguiano et al 2016b;Zinchenko et al 2016;Belfiore et al 2017). However, recently it has been found that some spiral galaxies show lower (higher) oxygen abundance val-ues in the inner (outer) regions than that expected according to the observed negative gradients.…”

Section: The Shape Of the Abundance Profilesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The shape of oxygen abundance profiles explored with MUSE: evidence for widespread deviations from single gradients

Sánchez-Menguiano

Sanchez

Pérez

et al. 2018

A&A

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150

146

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We characterised the oxygen abundance radial distribution of a sample of 102 spiral galaxies observed with VLT/MUSE using the O3N2 calibrator. The high spatial resolution of the data allowed us to detect 14345 H ii regions with the same image quality as with photometric data, avoiding any dilution effect. We developed a new methodology to automatically fit the abundance radial profiles, finding that 55 galaxies of the sample exhibit a single negative gradient. The remaining 47 galaxies also display, as well as this negative trend, either an inner drop in the abundances (21), an outer flattening (10), or both (16), which suggests that these features are a common property of disc galaxies. The presence and depth of the inner drop depends on the stellar mass of the galaxies with the most massive systems presenting the deepest abundance drops, while there is no such dependence in the case of the outer flattening. We find that the inner drop appears always around 0.5 r e , while the position of the outer flattening varies over a wide range of galactocentric distances. Regarding the main negative gradient, we find a characteristic slope in the sample of α O/H = − 0.10 ± 0.03 dex/r e . This slope is independent of the presence of bars and the density of the environment. However, when inner drops or outer flattenings are detected, slightly steeper gradients are observed. This suggests that radial motions might play an important role in shaping the abundance profiles. We define a new normalisation scale ('the abundance scale length', r O/H ) for the radial profiles based on the characteristic abundance gradient, with which all the galaxies show a similar position for the inner drop (∼ 0.5 r O/H ) and the outer flattening (∼ 1.5 r O/H ). Finally, we find no significant dependence of the dispersion around the negative gradient with any property of the galaxies, with values compatible with the uncertainties associated with the derivation of the abundances.

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Metallicities in the Outer Regions of Spiral Galaxies

Bresolin

2017

Astrophysics and Space Science Library

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The analysis of the chemical composition of galaxies provides fundamental insights into their evolution. This holds true also in the case of the outer regions of spiral galaxies. This Chapter presents the observational data, accumulated in the past few years mostly from the analysis of H II region spectra, concerning the metallicity of the outer disks of spirals that are characterized by extended H I envelopes and low star formation rates. I present evidence from the literature that the metal radial distribution flattens at large galactocentric distances, with levels of enrichment that exceed those expected given the large gas mass fractions and the weak star formation activity. The interpretation of these results leads to speculations regarding mechanisms of metal mixing in galactic disks and the possibility that metal-enriched gas infall plays a role in determining the chemical evolution of the outskirts of spirals.

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Integral Field Spectroscopy and Multi-Wavelength Imaging of the Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 5668: An Unusual Flattening in Metallicity Gradient

Cited by 38 publications

References 144 publications

Integral field spectroscopy of a sample of nearby galaxies

Integral field spectroscopy of a sample of nearby galaxies

The shape of oxygen abundance profiles explored with MUSE: evidence for widespread deviations from single gradients

Metallicities in the Outer Regions of Spiral Galaxies

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