Specific Star Formation Rate Profiles in Nearby Spiral Galaxies: Quantifying the Inside-Out Formation of Disks

By J. Muńoz-Mateos, A. Paz, S. Boissier, J. Zamorano, Thomas H. Jarrett, J. Gallego, B. F. M. D. D. Astrofisica, U. Madrid, Spain., L. D. Marseille and 4 more. 2006

147 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We present specific star formation rate (sSFR) radial profiles for a sample of 161 relatively face-on spiral galaxies from the GALEX Atlas of Nearby Galaxies. The sSFR profiles are derived from GALEX and 2MASS (FUV - K) color profiles after a proper SFR calibration of the UV luminosity and K-band mass-to-light ratio are adopted. The (FUV - K) profiles were first corrected for foreground Galactic extinction and later for internal extinction using the ratio of the total-infrared (TIR) to FUV emission. For those objects where TIR-to-FUV ratio radial profiles were not available, the (FUV - NUV) color profiles were used as a measure of the UV slope. The sSFR radial gradients derived from these profiles allow us to quantify the inside-out scenario for the growth of spiral disks for the first time in the local universe. We find a large dispersion in the slope of the sSFR profiles with a slightly positive mean value, which implies a moderate inside-out disk formation. There is also a strong dependency of the value of this slope on the luminosity and size of the disks, with large systems showing a uniform, slightly positive slope in almost all cases and low-luminosity small disks showing a large dispersion with both positive and negative large values. While a majority of the galaxies can be interpreted as forming stars gradually either from inside out or from outside in, a few disks require episodes of enhanced recent growth with scale lengths of the SFR (or gas infall) being significantly larger at present than in the past. We do not find any clear dependence of the sSFR gradient on the environment (local galaxy density or presence of close neighbors).

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ee325c6fc1d9134bf86ea75c67dc0e7ace63a85a

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Instrumentation

Citations in the corpus

A Search for Extended Ultraviolet Disk (XUV-Disk) Galaxies in the Local Universe (2007, methodology): “The color of the disk is also a function of galactocentric distance (e.g. de Jong 1996, MacArthur 2006, MacArthur et al. 2004, Muńoz-Mateos et al. 2007).”
Riding the Spiral Waves: Implications of Stellar Migration for the Properties of Galactic Disks (2008, background): “The inner parts, with lower angular momentum assemble first, followed by the higher angular momentum components, resulting in “inside-out” build up of disk material (Larson 1976; White & Frenk 1991; Muñoz-Mateos et al. 2007).”
Measuring Radial Orbit Migration in the Galactic Disk (2018, background): “The Galactic disk is thought to build from inside out, as gas of first low and then higher angular momentum cools and falls into the potential of the dark matter halo (White & Frenk 1991; Mo et al. 1998; Muñoz-Mateos et al. 2007; Fraternali & Tomassetti 2012).”
SDSS IV MaNGA – metallicity and nitrogen abundance gradients in local galaxies (2017, background): “The insideout growth scenario is further supported by observations of colour gradients (Bell & de Jong 2000; Muñoz-Mateos et al. 2007) and spectroscopically-inferred age profiles of disc galaxies (Pérez et al. 2013; González Delgado et al. 2015; Ibarra-Medel et al. 2016).”
EXTRAGALACTIC CHEMICAL ABUNDANCES: DO H ii REGIONS AND YOUNG STARS TELL THE SAME STORY? THE CASE OF THE SPIRAL GALAXY NGC 300 (2009, background): “…(Pietrzyński et al. 2002; Mennickent et al. 2004), dust content (Helou et al. 2004; Roussel et al. 2005), X-ray sources (Read & Pietsch 2001; Carpano et al. 2005), supernova remnants (Blair & Long 1997; Pannuti et al. 2000; Payne et al. 2004) and UV emission properties (Muñoz-Mateos et al. 2007).”
RADIAL DISTRIBUTION OF STARS, GAS, AND DUST IN SINGS GALAXIES. II. DERIVED DUST PROPERTIES (2009, background): “Given that the dust content also changes with radius, it is key to properly quantify that variation with direct tracers of dust extinction; otherwise, derived parameters such as the radial growth rate of disks might be biased (see Muñoz-Mateos et al. 2007 and references therein).”
Stellar population gradients in galaxy discs from the CALIFA survey - The influence of bars (2014, background): “…gradients have mainly Article published by EDP Sciences A6, page 1 of 85 been investigated using colours (e.g., de Jong 1996; Peletier & Balcells 1996; Jansen et al. 2000; Bell & de Jong 2000; MacArthur et al. 2004; Taylor et al. 2005; Muñoz-Mateos et al. 2007, 2009; Prochaska et al. 2010).”
Misaligned angular momentum in hydrodynamic cosmological simulations: warps, outer discs and thick discs (2010, background): “…growth can be inferred from trends of decreasing mean stellar age as a function of radius (de Jong 1996; Bell & de Jong 2000; MacArthur et al. 2004; Williams et al. 2009; Gogarten et al. 2010), or by measurement of specific star formation rates as a function of radius (Muñoz-Mateos et al. 2007).”
Beyond Inside-Out Growth: Formation and Evolution of Disk Outskirts (2007, background): “The decrease in mean stellar age with radius is unsurprising if disks form inside-out, and such trends have indeed been observed (de Jong 1996; Bell & de Jong 2000; MacArthur et al. 2004; Muñoz-Mateos et al. 2007).”