Abstract
MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory) is a 6-yr Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV) survey that will obtain spatially resolved spectroscopy from 3600 to 10 300Å for a representative sample of over 10 000 nearby galaxies. In this paper, we present the analysis of nebular emission-line properties using observations of 14 galaxies obtained with P-MaNGA, a prototype of the MaNGA instrument. By using spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams, we find extended star formation in galaxies that are centrally dominated by Seyfert/LINER-like emission, which illustrates that galaxy characterizations based on single fibre spectra are necessarily incomplete. We observe extended low ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINER)-like emission (up to 1Re) in the central regions of three galaxies. We make use of the Hα equivalent width [EW(Hα)] to argue that the observed emission is consistent with ionization from hot evolved stars. We derive stellar population indices and demonstrate a clear correlation between Dn(4000) and EW(HδA) and the position in the ionization diagnostic diagram: resolved galactic regions which are ionized by a Seyfert/LINER-like radiation field are also devoid of recent star formation and host older and/or more metal-rich stellar populations. We also detect extraplanar LINER-like emission in two highly inclined galaxies, and identify it with diffuse ionized gas. We investigate spatially resolved metallicities and find a positive correlation between metallicity and star formation rate surface density. We further study the relation between N/O versus O/H on resolved scales. We find that, at given N/O, regions within individual galaxies are spread towards lower metallicities, deviating from the sequence defined by galactic central regions as traced by Sloan 3-arcsec fibre spectra. We suggest that the observed dispersion can be a tracer for gas flows in galaxies: infalls of pristine gas and/or the effect of a galactic fountain.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 867-900 |
Number of pages | 34 |
Journal | Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society |
Volume | 449 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 23 2015 |
Keywords
- Galaxies: ISM
- Galaxies: abundances
- Galaxies: active
- Galaxies: evolution
- Galaxies: fundamental parameters
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science