Issue |
A&A
Volume 673, May 2023
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A63 | |
Number of page(s) | 15 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202345962 | |
Published online | 05 May 2023 |
Non-parametric galaxy morphology from stellar and nebular emission with the CALIFA sample⋆
1
Sterrenkundig Observatorium Universiteit Gent, Krijgslaan 281 S9, 9000 Gent, Belgium
e-mail: angelos.nersesian@ugent.be
2
Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, 50125 Firenze, Italy
3
Kavli Institute for Cosmology, University of Cambridge, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0HA, UK
4
Cavendish Laboratory – Astrophysics Group, University of Cambridge, 19 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge CB3 0HE, UK
Received:
20
January
2023
Accepted:
2
March
2023
Aims. We present a non-parametric morphology analysis of the stellar continuum and nebular emission lines for a sample of local galaxies. We explore the dependence of the various morphological parameters on wavelength and morphological type. Our goal is to quantify the difference in morphology between the stellar and nebular components.
Methods. We derived the non-parametric morphological indicators of 364 galaxies from the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) Survey. To calculate those indicators, we applied the StatMorph package on the high-quality integral field spectroscopic data cubes, as well as to the most prominent nebular emission-line maps, namely [O III]λ5007, Hα, and [N II]λ6583.
Results. We show that the physical size of galaxies, M20 index, and concentration have a strong gradient from blue to red optical wavelengths. We find that the light distribution of the nebular emission is less concentrated than the stellar continuum. A comparison between the non-parametric indicators and the galaxy physical properties revealed a very strong correlation of the concentration with the specific star formation rate and morphological type. Furthermore, we explore how the galaxy inclination affects our results. We find that edge-on galaxies show a more rapid change in physical size and concentration with increasing wavelength due to the increase in the optical free path.
Conclusions. We conclude that the apparent morphology of galaxies originates from the pure stellar distribution, but the morphology of the interstellar medium presents differences with respect to the morphology of the stellar component. Our analysis also highlights the importance of dust attenuation and galaxy inclination in the measurement of non-parametric morphological indicators, especially in the wavelength range 4000−5000 Å.
Key words: galaxies: structure / galaxies: spiral / galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD / galaxies: ISM
Data are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr (130.79.128.5) or via https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/673/A63
© The Authors 2023
Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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