Bibcode
Sánchez-Menguiano, Laura; Sánchez Almeida, Jorge; Muñoz-Tuñón, Casiana; Sánchez, Sebastián F.; Filho, Mercedes; Hwang, Hsiang-Chih; Drory, Niv
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 882, Issue 1, article id. 9, 17 pp. (2019).
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9
2019
Journal
Citations
39
Refereed citations
37
Description
The role of gas accretion in galaxy evolution is still a matter of
debate. The presence of inflows of metal-poor gas that trigger star
formation bursts of low metallicity has been proposed as an explanation
for the local anticorrelation between star formation rate (SFR) and
gas-phase metallicity (Z g ) found in the literature. In the
present study, we show how the anticorrelation is also present as part
of a diversified range of behaviors for a sample of more than 700 nearby
spiral galaxies from the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. We have characterized the
local relation between SFR and Z g after subtracting the
azimuthally averaged radial profiles of both quantities. Of the analyzed
galaxies, 60% display an SFR–Z g anticorrelation,
with the remaining 40% showing no correlation (19%) or positive
correlation (21%). Applying a random forest machine-learning algorithm,
we find that the slope of the correlation is mainly determined by the
average gas-phase metallicity of the galaxy. Galaxy mass, g ‑ r
colors, stellar age, and mass density seem to play a less significant
role. This result is supported by the performed second-order polynomial
regression analysis. Thus, the local SFR–Z g slope
varies with the average metallicity, with the more metal-poor galaxies
presenting the lowest slopes (i.e., the strongest SFR–Z g
anticorrelations), and reversing the relation for more metal-rich
systems. Our results suggest that external gas accretion fuels star
formation in metal-poor galaxies, whereas in metal-rich systems, the gas
comes from previous star formation episodes.
Related projects
Starbursts in Galaxies GEFE
Starsbursts play a key role in the cosmic evolution of galaxies, and thus in the star formation (SF) history of the universe, the production of metals, and the feedback coupling galaxies with the cosmic web. Extreme SF conditions prevail early on during the formation of the first stars and galaxies, therefore, the starburst phenomenon constitutes a
Casiana
Muñoz Tuñón