P-MaNGA: Full Spectral Fitting and Stellar Population Maps from Prototype Observations

Authors

David M. Wilkinson, University of Portsmouth, UK
Claudia Maraston, University of Portsmouth, UK
Daniel Thomas, University of Portsmouth, UK
Lodovico Coccato, University of Portsmouth, UK
Rita Tojeiro, University of St. Andrews, UK
Michele Cappellari, University of Oxford, UK
Francesco Belfiore, University of Cambridge, UK
Matthew Bershady, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Mike Blanton, New York University
Kevin Bundy, University of Tokyo, Japan
Sabrina Cales, Yale University
Brian Cherinka, University of Toronto, Canada
Niv Drory, University of Texas - Austin
Eric Emsellem, European Southern Observatory, Germany
Hai Fu, University of Iowa
David Law, Space Telescope Science Institute
Cheng Li, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, China
Roberto Maiolino, University of Cambridge, UK
Karen Masters, University of Portsmouth, UK
Christy Tremonti, University of Wisconsin - Madison
David Wake, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Enci Wang, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, China
Anne-Marie Weijmans, University of St. Andrews, UK
Ting Xiao, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, China
Renbin Yan, University of KentuckyFollow
Kai Zhang, University of KentuckyFollow
Dmitry Bizyaev, New Mexico State University
Jonathan Brinkmann, New Mexico State University
Karen Kinemuchi, New Mexico State University
Daniel Oravetz, New Mexico State University
Kaike Pan, New Mexico State University
Audrey Simmons, New Mexico State University

Abstract

MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) is a 6-yr SDSS-IV (Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV) survey that will obtain resolved spectroscopy from 3600 to 10 300 Å for a representative sample of over 10 000 nearby galaxies. In this paper, we derive spatially resolved stellar population properties and radial gradients by performing full spectral fitting of observed galaxy spectra from P-MaNGA, a prototype of the MaNGA instrument. These data include spectra for 18 galaxies, covering a large range of morphological type. We derive age, metallicity, dust, and stellar mass maps, and their radial gradients, using high spectral-resolution stellar population models, and assess the impact of varying the stellar library input to the models. We introduce a method to determine dust extinction which is able to give smooth stellar mass maps even in cases of high and spatially non-uniform dust attenuation. With the spectral fitting, we produce detailed maps of stellar population properties which allow us to identify galactic features among this diverse sample such as spiral structure, smooth radial profiles with little azimuthal structure in spheroidal galaxies, and spatially distinct galaxy sub-components. In agreement with the literature, we find the gradients for galaxies identified as early type to be on average flat in age, and negative (−0.15 dex/R_e) in metallicity, whereas the gradients for late-type galaxies are on average negative in age (−0.39 dex/R_e) and flat in metallicity. We demonstrate how different levels of data quality change the precision with which radial gradients can be measured. We show how this analysis, extended to the large numbers of MaNGA galaxies, will have the potential to shed light on galaxy structure and evolution.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2015

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, v. 449, no. 1, p. 328-360.

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2015 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv301

Funding Information

Funding for SDSS-III and SDSS-IV has been provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Participating Institutions. Additional funding for SDSS-III comes from the National Science Foundation and the US Department of Energy Office of Science. Further information about both projects is available at www.sdss3.org.

MC acknowledges support from a Royal Society University Research Fellowship.

Related Content

The authors would like to thank Sebastian F. Sanchez for his very useful and detailed comments and to Roberto Cid Fernandes for providing access to the CALIFA data used in Fig. 16.

Repository Citation

Wilkinson, David M.; Maraston, Claudia; Thomas, Daniel; Coccato, Lodovico; Tojeiro, Rita; Cappellari, Michele; Belfiore, Francesco; Bershady, Matthew; Blanton, Mike; Bundy, Kevin; Cales, Sabrina; Cherinka, Brian; Drory, Niv; Emsellem, Eric; Fu, Hai; Law, David; Li, Cheng; Maiolino, Roberto; Masters, Karen; Tremonti, Christy; Wake, David; Wang, Enci; Weijmans, Anne-Marie; Xiao, Ting; Yan, Renbin; Zhang, Kai; Bizyaev, Dmitry; Brinkmann, Jonathan; Kinemuchi, Karen; Oravetz, Daniel; Pan, Kaike; and Simmons, Audrey, "P-MaNGA: Full Spectral Fitting and Stellar Population Maps from Prototype Observations" (2015). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 270.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/270