BUDDI-MaNGA

III. The mass-assembly histories of bulges and discs of spiral galaxies

¹ Instituto de Estudios Astrofísicos, Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Diego Portales, Av. Ejército Libertador 441, Santiago, Chile
e-mail: keerthana.jegatheesan@mail.udp.cl
² European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Cordova 3107, Casilla, 19001 Santiago, Chile
³ Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
⁴ Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

Received: 4 July 2023
Accepted: 1 February 2024

Abstract

The many unique properties of galaxies are shaped by physical processes that affect different components of the galaxy – such as their bulges and discs – in different ways, and they leave characteristic imprints on the light and spectra of these components. Disentangling these spectra reveals vital clues that can be traced back in time to understand how galaxies, and their components, form and evolve throughout their lifetimes. With BUDDI, we have decomposed the integral field unit (IFU) datacubes in SDSS-MaNGA DR17 into Sérsic bulge and exponential disc components and extracted clean bulge and disc spectra. BUDDI-MaNGA is the first large statistical sample of such decomposed spectra of 1452 galaxies covering morphologies from ellipticals to late-type spirals. We derive stellar masses of the individual components with spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting using BAGPIPES and estimate their mean mass-weighted stellar metallicities and stellar ages using PPXF. With this information, we reconstruct the mass assembly histories of the bulges and discs of 968 spiral galaxies (Sa-Sm types). Our results show a clear downsizing effect especially for the bulges, with more massive components assembling earlier and faster than the less massive ones. Additionally, we compare the stellar populations of the bulges and discs in these galaxies, and find that a majority of the bulges host more metal-rich and older stars than their disc counterparts. Nevertheless, we also find a non-negligible fraction of the spiral galaxy population in our sample contains bulges that are younger and more metal-enhanced than their discs. We interpret these results, taking into account how their formation histories and current stellar populations depend on stellar mass and morphology.