SDSS IV MaNGA - spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams: a proof that many galaxies are LIERs

Francesco Belfiore; Roberto Maiolino; Claudia Maraston; Eric Emsellem; Matthew A. Bershady; Karen L. Masters; Renbin Yan; Dmitry Bizyaev; Médéric Boquien; Joel R. Brownstein; Kevin Bundy; Niv Drory; Timothy M. Heckman; David R. Law; Alexandre Roman-Lopes; Kaike Pan; Letizia Stanghellini; Daniel Thomas; Anne-Marie Weijmans; Kyle B. Westfall

doi:10.1093/mnras/stw1234

SDSS IV MaNGA - spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams: a proof that many galaxies are LIERs

Francesco Belfiore, Roberto Maiolino, Claudia Maraston, Eric Emsellem, Matthew A. Bershady, Karen L. Masters, Renbin Yan, Dmitry Bizyaev, Médéric Boquien, Joel R. Brownstein, Kevin Bundy, Niv Drory, Timothy M. Heckman, David R. Law, Alexandre Roman-Lopes, Kaike Pan, Letizia Stanghellini, Daniel Thomas, Anne-Marie Weijmans, Kyle B. Westfall

School of Physics and Astronomy

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We study the spatially resolved excitation properties of the ionised gas in a sample of 646 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy data from SDSS-IV MaNGA. Making use of Baldwin-Philips-Terlevich diagnostic diagrams we demonstrate the ubiquitous presence of extended (kpc scale) low ionisation emission-line regions (LIERs) in both star forming and quiescent galaxies. In star forming galaxies LIER emission can be associated with diffuse ionised gas, most evident as extra-planar emission in edge-on systems. In addition, we iden- tify two main classes of galaxies displaying LIER emission: 'central LIER' (cLIER) galaxies, where central LIER emission is spatially extended, but accompanied by star formation at larger galactocentric distances, and 'extended LIER' (eLIER) galaxies, where LIER emission is extended throughout the whole galaxy. In eLIER and cLIER galaxies, LIER emission is associated with radially flat, low Hα equivalent width of line emission ( < 3 Å) and stellar population indices demonstrating the lack of young stellar populations, implying that line emission follows tightly the continuum due to the underlying old stellar population. The Hα surface brightness radial profiles are always shallower than 1/r² and the line ratio [OIII]λ5007/[OII]λ3727,29 (a tracer of the ion- isation parameter of the gas) shows a flat gradient. This combined evidence strongly supports the scenario in which LIER emission is not due to a central point source but to diffuse stellar sources, the most likely candidates being hot, evolved (post-asymptotic giant branch) stars. Shocks are observed to play a significant role in the ionisation of the gas only in rare merging and interacting systems.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	3111-3134
Number of pages	24
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume	461
Issue number	3
Early online date	23 May 2016
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw1234
Publication status	Published - 21 Sept 2016

Keywords

Galaxies: ISM
Galaxies: evolution
Galaxies: fundamental parameters
Survey

Access to Document

10.1093/mnras/stw1234

Weijmans_2016_MNRAS_MaNGA_FinalPubVersion
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the final published version of the work, which was originally published at: https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw1234
Final published version, 8.39 MB

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2016arXiv160507189B

Leverhulme Fellowship: Galaxies over Cosmic Time
Weijmans, A.-M. (CoI)
The Leverhulme Trust
1/01/15 → 31/12/17
Project: Fellowship

Sloan Digital Sky Surveys Data Release 13 (SDSS DR13)
Weijmans, A.-M. (Contributor), Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), 31 Jul 2016
http://www.sdss.org/dr13
Dataset

Cite this

Belfiore, F., Maiolino, R., Maraston, C., Emsellem, E., Bershady, M. A., Masters, K. L., Yan, R., Bizyaev, D., Boquien, M., Brownstein, J. R., Bundy, K., Drory, N., Heckman, T. M., Law, D. R., Roman-Lopes, A., Pan, K., Stanghellini, L., Thomas, D., Weijmans, A.-M., & Westfall, K. B. (2016). SDSS IV MaNGA - spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams: a proof that many galaxies are LIERs. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 461(3), 3111-3134. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw1234

@article{3d7cfa58ef954cee91fb2f47f279c117,

title = "SDSS IV MaNGA - spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams: a proof that many galaxies are LIERs",

abstract = "We study the spatially resolved excitation properties of the ionised gas in a sample of 646 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy data from SDSS-IV MaNGA. Making use of Baldwin-Philips-Terlevich diagnostic diagrams we demonstrate the ubiquitous presence of extended (kpc scale) low ionisation emission-line regions (LIERs) in both star forming and quiescent galaxies. In star forming galaxies LIER emission can be associated with diffuse ionised gas, most evident as extra-planar emission in edge-on systems. In addition, we iden- tify two main classes of galaxies displaying LIER emission: 'central LIER' (cLIER) galaxies, where central LIER emission is spatially extended, but accompanied by star formation at larger galactocentric distances, and 'extended LIER' (eLIER) galaxies, where LIER emission is extended throughout the whole galaxy. In eLIER and cLIER galaxies, LIER emission is associated with radially flat, low Hα equivalent width of line emission ( < 3 {\AA}) and stellar population indices demonstrating the lack of young stellar populations, implying that line emission follows tightly the continuum due to the underlying old stellar population. The Hα surface brightness radial profiles are always shallower than 1/r2 and the line ratio [OIII]λ5007/[OII]λ3727,29 (a tracer of the ion- isation parameter of the gas) shows a flat gradient. This combined evidence strongly supports the scenario in which LIER emission is not due to a central point source but to diffuse stellar sources, the most likely candidates being hot, evolved (post-asymptotic giant branch) stars. Shocks are observed to play a significant role in the ionisation of the gas only in rare merging and interacting systems.",

keywords = "Galaxies: ISM, Galaxies: evolution, Galaxies: fundamental parameters, Survey",

author = "Francesco Belfiore and Roberto Maiolino and Claudia Maraston and Eric Emsellem and Bershady, {Matthew A.} and Masters, {Karen L.} and Renbin Yan and Dmitry Bizyaev and M{\'e}d{\'e}ric Boquien and Brownstein, {Joel R.} and Kevin Bundy and Niv Drory and Heckman, {Timothy M.} and Law, {David R.} and Alexandre Roman-Lopes and Kaike Pan and Letizia Stanghellini and Daniel Thomas and Anne-Marie Weijmans and Westfall, {Kyle B.}",

year = "2016",

month = sep,

day = "21",

doi = "10.1093/mnras/stw1234",

language = "English",

volume = "461",

pages = "3111--3134",

journal = "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society",

issn = "0035-8711",

publisher = "Oxford University Press",

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Belfiore, F, Maiolino, R, Maraston, C, Emsellem, E, Bershady, MA, Masters, KL, Yan, R, Bizyaev, D, Boquien, M, Brownstein, JR, Bundy, K, Drory, N, Heckman, TM, Law, DR, Roman-Lopes, A, Pan, K, Stanghellini, L, Thomas, D, Weijmans, A-M & Westfall, KB 2016, 'SDSS IV MaNGA - spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams: a proof that many galaxies are LIERs', Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 461, no. 3, pp. 3111-3134. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw1234

TY - JOUR

T1 - SDSS IV MaNGA - spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams

T2 - a proof that many galaxies are LIERs

AU - Belfiore, Francesco

AU - Maiolino, Roberto

AU - Maraston, Claudia

AU - Emsellem, Eric

AU - Bershady, Matthew A.

AU - Masters, Karen L.

AU - Yan, Renbin

AU - Bizyaev, Dmitry

AU - Boquien, Médéric

AU - Brownstein, Joel R.

AU - Bundy, Kevin

AU - Drory, Niv

AU - Heckman, Timothy M.

AU - Law, David R.

AU - Roman-Lopes, Alexandre

AU - Pan, Kaike

AU - Stanghellini, Letizia

AU - Thomas, Daniel

AU - Weijmans, Anne-Marie

AU - Westfall, Kyle B.

PY - 2016/9/21

Y1 - 2016/9/21

N2 - We study the spatially resolved excitation properties of the ionised gas in a sample of 646 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy data from SDSS-IV MaNGA. Making use of Baldwin-Philips-Terlevich diagnostic diagrams we demonstrate the ubiquitous presence of extended (kpc scale) low ionisation emission-line regions (LIERs) in both star forming and quiescent galaxies. In star forming galaxies LIER emission can be associated with diffuse ionised gas, most evident as extra-planar emission in edge-on systems. In addition, we iden- tify two main classes of galaxies displaying LIER emission: 'central LIER' (cLIER) galaxies, where central LIER emission is spatially extended, but accompanied by star formation at larger galactocentric distances, and 'extended LIER' (eLIER) galaxies, where LIER emission is extended throughout the whole galaxy. In eLIER and cLIER galaxies, LIER emission is associated with radially flat, low Hα equivalent width of line emission ( < 3 Å) and stellar population indices demonstrating the lack of young stellar populations, implying that line emission follows tightly the continuum due to the underlying old stellar population. The Hα surface brightness radial profiles are always shallower than 1/r2 and the line ratio [OIII]λ5007/[OII]λ3727,29 (a tracer of the ion- isation parameter of the gas) shows a flat gradient. This combined evidence strongly supports the scenario in which LIER emission is not due to a central point source but to diffuse stellar sources, the most likely candidates being hot, evolved (post-asymptotic giant branch) stars. Shocks are observed to play a significant role in the ionisation of the gas only in rare merging and interacting systems.

AB - We study the spatially resolved excitation properties of the ionised gas in a sample of 646 galaxies using integral field spectroscopy data from SDSS-IV MaNGA. Making use of Baldwin-Philips-Terlevich diagnostic diagrams we demonstrate the ubiquitous presence of extended (kpc scale) low ionisation emission-line regions (LIERs) in both star forming and quiescent galaxies. In star forming galaxies LIER emission can be associated with diffuse ionised gas, most evident as extra-planar emission in edge-on systems. In addition, we iden- tify two main classes of galaxies displaying LIER emission: 'central LIER' (cLIER) galaxies, where central LIER emission is spatially extended, but accompanied by star formation at larger galactocentric distances, and 'extended LIER' (eLIER) galaxies, where LIER emission is extended throughout the whole galaxy. In eLIER and cLIER galaxies, LIER emission is associated with radially flat, low Hα equivalent width of line emission ( < 3 Å) and stellar population indices demonstrating the lack of young stellar populations, implying that line emission follows tightly the continuum due to the underlying old stellar population. The Hα surface brightness radial profiles are always shallower than 1/r2 and the line ratio [OIII]λ5007/[OII]λ3727,29 (a tracer of the ion- isation parameter of the gas) shows a flat gradient. This combined evidence strongly supports the scenario in which LIER emission is not due to a central point source but to diffuse stellar sources, the most likely candidates being hot, evolved (post-asymptotic giant branch) stars. Shocks are observed to play a significant role in the ionisation of the gas only in rare merging and interacting systems.

KW - Galaxies: ISM

KW - Galaxies: evolution

KW - Galaxies: fundamental parameters

KW - Survey

U2 - 10.1093/mnras/stw1234

DO - 10.1093/mnras/stw1234

M3 - Article

SN - 0035-8711

VL - 461

SP - 3111

EP - 3134

JO - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

JF - Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

IS - 3

ER -

SDSS IV MaNGA - spatially resolved diagnostic diagrams: a proof that many galaxies are LIERs

Abstract

Keywords

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Projects

Leverhulme Fellowship: Galaxies over Cosmic Time

Datasets

Sloan Digital Sky Surveys Data Release 13 (SDSS DR13)

Cite this