Issue |
A&A
Volume 603, July 2017
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A113 | |
Number of page(s) | 13 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201630062 | |
Published online | 19 July 2017 |
Arm and interarm abundance gradients in CALIFA spiral galaxies
1 Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, Aptdo. 3004, 18080 Granada, Spain
e-mail: lsanchez@iaa.es
2 Dpto. de Física Teórica y del Cosmos, Universidad de Granada, Facultad de Ciencias (Edificio Mecenas), 18071 Granada, Spain
3 Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, A.P. 70-264, 04510 México, D.F., Mexico
4 Instituto Carlos I de Física Teórica y computacional, Universidad de Granada, 18071 Granada, Spain
5 Jeremiah Horrocks Institute, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, PR1 2HE, UK
6 Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Calle Vía Láctea s/n, 38205 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
7 Universidad de La Laguna, Dpto. Astrofísica, 38206 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
8 Instituto de Física e Química, Universidade Federal de Itajubá, Av. BPS, 1303, 37500-903 Itajubá-MG, Brazil
9 PITT PACC, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA
10 Institute for Astronomy, Department of Physics, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
11 Observatorio Astronómico, Laprida 854, X5000 BGR Córdoba, Argentina
12 CONICET, Avda. Rivadavia 1917, C1033 AAJ CABA, Argentina
13 Instituto de Astrofísica, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Av. Vicuña Mackenna 4860, 782-0436 Macul, Santiago, Chile
14 School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews, SUPA, North Haugh, KY16 9SS, St. Andrews, UK
15 Departamento de Astrofísica y CC. de la Atmósfera, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
16 Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
17 Departamento de Física Teórica, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049 Madrid, Spain
18 Astro-UAM, UAM, Unidad Asociada CSIC, Facultad de Ciencias, Campus de Cantoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain
19 Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO), PO Box 915, North Ryde, NSW 1670, Australia
20 Department of Physics and Astronomy, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia
21 CIEMAT, Avda. Complutense 40, 28040 Madrid, Spain
22 Sydney Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics A28, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
23 Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam (AIP), An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
24 Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia “G. Galilei”, Università di Padova, vicolo dell’Osservatorio 3, 35122 Padova, Italy
Received: 15 November 2016
Accepted: 6 May 2017
Spiral arms are the most singular features in disc galaxies. These structures can exhibit different patterns, namely grand design and flocculent arms, with easily distinguishable characteristics. However, their origin and the mechanisms shaping them are unclear. The overall role of spirals in the chemical evolution of disc galaxies is another unsolved question. In particular, it has not been fully explored if the H ii regions of spiral arms present different properties from those located in the interarm regions. Here we analyse the radial oxygen abundance gradient of the arm and interarm star forming regions of 63 face-on spiral galaxies using CALIFA Integral Field Spectroscopy data. We focus the analysis on three characteristic parameters of the profile: slope, zero-point, and scatter. The sample is morphologically separated into flocculent versus grand design spirals and barred versus unbarred galaxies. We find subtle but statistically significant differences betweenthe arm and interarm distributions for flocculent galaxies, suggesting that the mechanisms generating the spiral structure in these galaxies may be different to those producing grand design systems, for which no significant differences are found. We also find small differences in barred galaxies, not observed in unbarred systems, hinting that bars may affect the chemical distribution of these galaxies but not strongly enough as to be reflected in the overall abundance distribution. In light of these results, we propose bars and flocculent structure as two distinct mechanisms inducing differences in the abundance distribution between arm and interarm star forming regions.
Key words: galaxies: abundances / galaxies: evolution / galaxies: ISM / galaxies: spiral / techniques: imaging spectroscopy / techniques: spectroscopic
© ESO, 2017
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