SDSS-IV MaNGA: Stellar Population Gradients Within Barred Galaxies

Fraser-McKelvie, Amelia; Merrifield, Michael; Aragón-Salamanca, Alfonso; Peterken, Thomas; Masters, Karen; Krawczyk, Coleman; Andrews, Brett; Knapen, Johan H; Kruk, Sandor; Schaefer, Adam; Smethurst, Rebecca; Riffel, Rogério; Brownstein, Joel; Drory, Niv

Abstract

Bars in galaxies are thought to stimulate both inflow of material and radial mixing along them. Observational evidence for this mixing has been inconclusive so far however, limiting the evaluation of the impact of bars on galaxy evolution. We now use results from the MaNGA integral field spectroscopic survey to characterise radial stellar age and metallicity gradients along the bar and outside the bar in 128 strongly barred galaxies. We find that age and metallicity gradients are flatter in the barred regions of almost all barred galaxies when compared to corresponding disk regions at the same radii. Our results re-emphasize the key fact that by azimuthally averaging integral field spectroscopic data one loses important information from non-axisymmetric galaxy components such as bars and spiral arms. We interpret our results as observational evidence that bars are radially mixing material in galaxies of all stellar masses, and for all bar morphologies and evolutionary stages.

Citation

Fraser-McKelvie, A., Merrifield, M., Aragón-Salamanca, A., Peterken, T., Masters, K., Krawczyk, C., …Drory, N. (2019). SDSS-IV MaNGA: Stellar Population Gradients Within Barred Galaxies. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 488(1), L6–L11. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slz085

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 31, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jun 6, 2019
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 13, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 13, 2019
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
• Electronic ISSN: 1745-3933
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 488
• Issue: 1
• Pages: L6–L11
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/slz085
• Keywords: Galaxies: evolution, Galaxies: general, Galaxies: stellar content, Galaxies: spiral
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2183371
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/488/1/L6/5511903
• Additional Information: This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved"