Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Xihan Ji
Cheng Li
Renbin Yan
Houjun Mo
Lihwai Lin
Hu Zou
Jianhui Lian
David V. Stark
Rogemar A. Riffel
Hsi-An Pan
Dmitry Bizyaev
Kevin Bundy
Abstract： H$\alpha$ blobs are off-galaxy emission-line regions with weak or no optical counterparts. They are mostly visible in H$\alpha$ line, appearing as concentrated blobs. Such unusual objects have been rarely observed and studied, and their physical origin is still unclear. We have identified 13 H$\alpha$ blobs in the public data of MaNGA survey, by visually inspecting both the optical images and the spatially resolved maps of H$\alpha$ line for $\sim 4600$ galaxy systems. Among the 13 H$\alpha$ blobs, 2 were reported in previously MaNGA-based studies and 11 are newly discovered. This sample, though still small in size, is by far the largest sample with both deep imaging and integral field spectroscopy. Therefore, for the first time we are able to perform statistical studies to investigate the physical origin of H$\alpha$ blobs. We examine the physical properties of these H$\alpha$ blobs and their associated galaxies, including their morphology, environments, gas-phase metallicity, kinematics of ionized gas, and ionizing sources. We find that the H$\alpha$ blobs in our sample can be broadly divided into two groups. One is associated with interacting/merging galaxy systems, of which the ionization is dominated by shocks or diffuse ionized gas. It is likely that these H$\alpha$ blobs used to be part of their nearby galaxies, but were stripped away at some point due to tidal interactions. The other group is found in gas-rich systems, appearing as low-metallicity star-forming regions that are visually detached from the main galaxy. These H$\alpha$ blobs could be associated with faint disks, spiral arms, or dwarf galaxies.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Justin Atsushi Otter
Kate Rowlands
Katherine Alatalo
Ho-Hin Leung
Vivienne Wild
Yuanze Luo
Andreea O. Petric
Elizaveta Sazonova
David V. Stark
Timothy Heckman
Timothy A. Davis
Sara Ellison
K. Decker French
William Baker
Asa F. L. Bluck
Lauranne Lanz
Lihwai Lin
Charles Liu
Carlos López Cobá
Karen L. Masters
Abstract： Post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) have recently and rapidly quenched their star-formation, thus they are an important way to understand how galaxies transition from star-forming late-types to quiescent early-types. The recent discovery of large cold gas reservoirs in PSBs calls into question the theory that galaxies must lose their gas to become quiescent. Optical Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) surveys have revealed two classes of PSBs: central PSBs with central quenching regions and ring PSBs with quenching in their outskirts. We analyze a sample of 13 nearby (z < 0.1) PSBs with spatially resolved optical IFS data from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey and matched resolution Atacama Large (sub-)Millimeter Array (ALMA) observations of $^{12}$CO(1-0). Disturbed stellar kinematics in 7/13 of our PSBs and centrally concentrated molecular gas is consistent with a recent merger for most of our sample. In galaxies without merger evidence, alternate processes may funnel gas inwards and suppress star-formation, which may include outflows, stellar bars, and minor mergers or interactions. The star-formation efficiencies of the post-starburst regions in nearly half our galaxies are suppressed while the gas fractions are consistent with star-forming galaxies. AGN feedback may drive this stabilization, and we observe AGN-consistent emission in the centers of 5/13 galaxies. Finally, our central and ring PSBs have similar properties except the ionized and molecular gas in central PSBs is more disturbed. Overall, the molecular gas in our PSBs tends to be compact and highly disturbed, resulting in concentrated gas reservoirs unable to form stars efficiently.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Xiao Cao
Yan-Mei Chen
Yong Shi
Min Bao
Alexei Moiseev
Dmitry Bizyaev
Song-Lin Li
José G. Fernández-Trincado
Rogemar A. Riffel
Rogério Riffel
Richard R. Lane
Abstract： Frequent accretion of external cold gas is thought to play an important role in galaxy assembly. However, almost all known kinematically misaligned galaxies identify only one gas disk that is misaligned with the stellar disk, implying a single gas acquisition event. Here we report a new configuration in two galaxies where both contain two gas disks misaligned with each other and also with the stellar disk. Such systems are not expected to be stable or long-lasting, challenging the traditional picture of gas accretion of galaxies and their angular momentum build-up. The differences in kinematic position angles are larger than 120{\deg} between the two gas disks, and 40{\deg} between each gas disk and the stellar component. The star formation activity is enhanced at the interface of the two gas disks compared with the other regions within the same galaxy. Such systems illustrate that low-redshift galaxies can still experience multiple gas acquisition events, and provide a new view into the origins of galactic gas.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Xiao Cao
Yan-Mei Chen
Yong Shi
Min Bao
Alexei Moiseev
Dmitry Bizyaev
Song-Lin Li
José G. Fernández-Trincado
Rogemar A. Riffel
Rogério Riffel
Richard R. Lane
Abstract： Frequent accretion of external cold gas is thought to play an important role in galaxy assembly. However, almost all known kinematically misaligned galaxies identify only one gas disk that is misaligned with the stellar disk, implying a single gas acquisition event. Here we report a new configuration in two galaxies where both contain two gas disks misaligned with each other and also with the stellar disk. Such systems are not expected to be stable or long-lasting, challenging the traditional picture of gas accretion of galaxies and their angular momentum build-up. The differences in kinematic position angles are larger than 120{\deg} between the two gas disks, and 40{\deg} between each gas disk and the stellar component. The star formation activity is enhanced at the interface of the two gas disks compared with the other regions within the same galaxy. Such systems illustrate that low-redshift galaxies can still experience multiple gas acquisition events, and provide a new view into the origins of galactic gas.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Astronomy >> Astrophysical processes submitted time 2023-02-19
Xihan Ji
Renbin Yan
Kevin Bundy
Médéric Boquien
Adam Schaefer
Francesco Belfiore
Matthew A. Bershady
Niv Drory
Cheng Li
Kyle B. Westfall
Zesen Lin
Dmitry Bizyaev
David R. Law
Rogério Riffel
Rogemar A. Riffel
Abstract： A fundamental assumption adopted in nearly every extragalactic emission-line study is that the attenuation of different emission lines can be described by a single attenuation curve. Here we show this assumption fails in many cases with important implications for derived results. We developed a new method to measure the differential nebular attenuation among three kinds of transitions: the Balmer lines of hydrogen, high-ionization transitions, and low-ionization transitions. This method bins the observed data in a multidimensional space spanned by attenuation-insensitive line ratios. Within each small bin, the variations in line ratios are mainly driven by the variations in the nebular attenuation. This allows us to measure the nebular attenuation using both forbidden lines and Balmer lines. We applied this method to a sample of 2.4 million star-forming spaxels from SDSS-IV MaNGA. We found that the attenuation of high ionization lines and Balmer lines can be well described by a single Fitzpatrick (1999) extinction curve with $R_V=3.1$. However, no single attenuation curve can simultaneously account for all three transitions. This strongly suggests that different lines have different effective attenuations, likely because spectroscopy at kiloparsec resolutions mixes multiple regions with different intrinsic line ratios and different levels of attenuation. As a result, the assumption that different lines follow the same attenuation curve breaks down. Using a single attenuation curve determined by Balmer lines to correct attenuation-sensitive forbidden line ratios could bias the nebular parameters derived by 0.06--0.25 dex at $A_V = 1$, depending on the details of the dust attenuation model. Observations of a statistically large sample of H II regions with high spatial resolutions and large spectral coverage are vital for improved modeling and deriving accurate corrections for this effect.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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