The resolved scaling relations in DustPedia: Zooming in on the local Universe

Abstract

Aims. We perform a homogeneous analysis of an unprecedented set of spatially resolved scaling relations (SRs) between interstellar medium (ISM) components, that is to say dust, gas, and gas-phase metallicity, and other galaxy properties, such as stellar mass (M star ), total baryonic content, and star-formation rate (SFR), in a range of physical scales between 0.3 and 3.4 kpc. We also study some ratios between galaxy components: dust-to-stellar, dust-to-gas, and dust-to-metal ratios. Methods. We use a sample of 18 large, spiral, face-on DustPedia galaxies. The sample consists of galaxies with spatially resolved dust maps corresponding to 15 Herschel-SPIRE 500 µm resolution elements across the optical radius, with the morphological stage spanning from T = 2 to 8, M star from 2 × 10 9 to 1 × 10 11 M , SFR from 0.2 to 13 M yr −1 , and oxygen abundance from 12 + log(O/H) = 8.3 to 8.8. Results. All the SRs are moderate or strong correlations except the dust-Hi SR that does not exist or is weak for most galaxies. The SRs do not have a universal form but each galaxy is characterized by distinct correlations, affected by local processes and galaxy peculiarities. The SRs hold, on average, starting from the scale of 0.3 kpc, and if a breaking down scale exists it is below 0.3 kpc. By evaluating all galaxies together at the common scale of 3.4 kpc, differences due to peculiarities of individual galaxies are cancelled out and the corresponding SRs are consistent with those of whole galaxies. By comparing subgalactic and global scales, the most striking result emerges from the SRs involving ISM components: the dust-total gas SR is a good correlation at all scales, while the dust-H 2 and dust-Hi SRs are good correlations at subkiloparsec/kiloparsec and total scales, respectively. For the other explored SRs, there is a good agreement between small and global scales and this may support the picture where the main physical processes regulating the properties and evolution of galaxies occur locally. In this scenario, our results are consistent with the hypothesis of self-regulation of the star-formation process. The analysis of subgalactic ratios between galaxy components shows that they are consistent with those derived for whole galaxies, from low to high redshift, supporting the idea that also these ratios could be set by local processes. Conclusions. Our results highlight the heterogeneity of galaxy properties and the importance of resolved studies on local galaxies in the context of galaxy evolution. They also provide fundamental observational constraints to theoretical models and updated references for high-redshift studies.

The Interstellar Medium Scaling Relations Using Inner H i and an Application of Estimating Dust Mass

“…in median), but the correlation of M H I,in with L 500 μm is still the strongest among its correlations with FIR luminosities. These results demonstrate that FIR luminosities, especially L 500 μm , display close connections with total gas (i.e., not just H I) in the inner region, which is consistent with spatially resolved relations (e.g., Foyle et al 2012;Abdurro'uf et al 2022b;Casasola et al 2022).…”

“…The dust mass has been found to be tightly correlated with the gas mass on both global (e.g., Corbelli et al 2012;Janowiecki et al 2018;Casasola et al 2020) and spatially resolved scales (e.g., Foyle et al 2012;Abdurro'uf et al 2022b;Casasola et al 2022). Our results demonstrate that inner gas shows stronger relations than the integral gas mass with dust mass.…”

VERTICO. VII. Environmental Quenching Caused by the Suppression of Molecular Gas Content and Star Formation Efficiency in Virgo Cluster Galaxies

“…As well as the longer depletion times in galaxies undergoing environmental transformation, JD23 also find significant galaxy-to-galaxy and region-to-region variations in the SFE, suggesting there is no single rKSR that can be used to describe all cluster galaxies accurately. We do note that this galaxy-to-galaxy diversity in the SFE is also found in field galaxies (e.g., Ellison et al 2021;Casasola et al 2022;Saintonge & Catinella 2022). So, while the correlation with stripping stage and lower SFE in the outer disks in Figure 5 suggests environmental processes are at play, we have not yet precisely determined the extent to which the cluster environment is responsible for decreasing the efficiency with which galaxies convert their molecular gas into stars.…”

The TNG50-SKIRT Atlas: Post-processing methodology and first data release

“…In the past few years, several well-known global galaxy scaling relations have been investigated on local, sub-kpc scales as well. Examples include the local dust scaling relations (Viaene et al 2014;Casasola et al 2022), the spatially resolved starforming main sequence (Cano-Díaz et al 2016;Hsieh et al 2017;Morselli et al 2020;Pessa et al 2022;Abdurro'uf et al 2022b;Baker et al 2022), the resolved stellar mass gas metallicity relation (Rosales-Ortega et al 2012;Barrera-Ballesteros et al 2016;Gao et al 2018;Boardman et al 2023;Baker et al 2023), or the resolved stellar mass stellar metallicity relation (González Delgado et al 2014;Zibetti et al 2020;Neumann et al 2021;Zibetti & Gallazzi 2022;Pessa et al 2023). Our image and physical parameter map database can be used to investigate the universality of these local scaling relations and to determine the physical scales at which they potentially break down.…”