TY - JOUR
T1 - SDSS-IV MaNGA
T2 - exploring the local scaling relations for N/O
AU - Schaefer, Adam L.
AU - Tremonti, Christy
AU - Kauffmann, Guinevere
AU - Andrews, Brett H.
AU - Bershady, Matthew A.
AU - Boardman, Nicholas F.
AU - Bundy, Kevin
AU - Drory, Niv
AU - Fernández-Trincado, José G.
AU - Preece, Holly P.
AU - Riffel, Rogério
AU - Riffel, Rogemar A.
AU - Sánchez, Sebastián F.
N1 - Funding: C.T. acknowledges NSF CAREER award AST-1554877 M.A.B. acknowledges support from NSF-1814682. J.G.F-T. gratefully acknowledges the grant support provided by Proyecto Fondecyt Iniciación No. 11220340, and also from ANID Concurso de Fomento a la Vinculación Internacional para Instituciones de Investigación Regionales (Modalidad corta duración) Proyecto No. FOVI210020, and from the Joint Committee ESO-Government of Chile 2021 (ORP 023/2021).
PY - 2022/5/10
Y1 - 2022/5/10
N2 - We present, for the first time, the relationship between local stellar mass surface density, Σ*, and N/O derived from SDSS-IV MaNGA data, using a sample of 792,765 high signal-to-noise ratio star-forming spaxels. Using a combination of phenomenological modeling and partial correlation analysis, we find that Σ* alone is insufficient to predict the N/O in MaNGA spaxels and that there is an additional dependence on the local star formation rate surface density, ΣSFR. This effect is a factor of 3 stronger than the dependence of 12+log(O/H) on ΣSFR. Surprisingly, we find that the local N/O scaling relations also depend on the total galaxy stellar mass at fixed Σ* and the galaxy size at fixed stellar mass. We find that more compact galaxies are more nitrogen rich, even when Σ* and ΣSFR are controlled for. We show that ∼50% of the variance of N/O is explained by the total stellar mass and size. Thus, the evolution of nitrogen in galaxies is set by more than just local effects and does not simply track the buildup of oxygen in galaxies. The precise form of the N/O–O/H relation is therefore sensitive to the sample of galaxies from which it is derived. This result casts doubt on the universal applicability of nitrogen-based strong-line metallicity indicators derived in the local universe.
AB - We present, for the first time, the relationship between local stellar mass surface density, Σ*, and N/O derived from SDSS-IV MaNGA data, using a sample of 792,765 high signal-to-noise ratio star-forming spaxels. Using a combination of phenomenological modeling and partial correlation analysis, we find that Σ* alone is insufficient to predict the N/O in MaNGA spaxels and that there is an additional dependence on the local star formation rate surface density, ΣSFR. This effect is a factor of 3 stronger than the dependence of 12+log(O/H) on ΣSFR. Surprisingly, we find that the local N/O scaling relations also depend on the total galaxy stellar mass at fixed Σ* and the galaxy size at fixed stellar mass. We find that more compact galaxies are more nitrogen rich, even when Σ* and ΣSFR are controlled for. We show that ∼50% of the variance of N/O is explained by the total stellar mass and size. Thus, the evolution of nitrogen in galaxies is set by more than just local effects and does not simply track the buildup of oxygen in galaxies. The precise form of the N/O–O/H relation is therefore sensitive to the sample of galaxies from which it is derived. This result casts doubt on the universal applicability of nitrogen-based strong-line metallicity indicators derived in the local universe.
KW - Galaxy evolution
KW - Chemical enrichment
KW - Chemical abundances
KW - Interstellar abundances
KW - Scaling relations
KW - Galaxy properties
KW - Galaxy abundances
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/ac651a
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ac651a
M3 - Article
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 930
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 160
ER -