Spatially resolved stellar populations and emission line properties in nearby galaxies with J-PLUS

I. Method and first results for the M101 group

¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), PO Box 3004 18080 Granada, Spain
² Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, PO Box 476 88040-900 Florianópolis, SC, Brazil
³ Centro de Estudios de Física del Cosmos de Aragón, Plaza San Juan 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain
⁴ Unidad Asociada CEFCA-IAA, CEFCA, Unidad Asociada al CSIC por el IAA, Plaza San Juan 1, 44001 Teruel, Spain
⁵ Observatório Nacional – MCTI (ON), Rua Gal. José Cristino 77, São Cristóvão, 20921-400 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
⁶ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, 38205 Tenerife, Spain
⁷ Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, 38206 Tenerife, Spain
⁸ Donostia International Physics Centre (DIPC), Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal 4, 20018 Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain
⁹ IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, 48013 Bilbao, Spain
¹⁰ Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP 05508-090, Brazil

^⋆ Corresponding author: jullia.thainna@gmail.com

Received: 22 March 2025
Accepted: 14 May 2025

Abstract

Context. Spatially resolved maps of stellar populations and nebular emission are key tools for understanding the physical properties and evolutionary stages of galaxies. These maps are commonly derived from integral field spectroscopy (IFS) data or, alternatively, from multiband imaging techniques.

Aims. We aim to characterize the spatially resolved stellar population and emission-line properties of galaxies in the M101 group using the Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) data.

Methods. The datacubes first underwent preprocessing steps, including masking, noise suppression, PSF homogenization, and spatial binning. The improved data were then analyzed with the spectral synthesis code ALSTAR, which was previously shown to produce excellent results with the unique 12-band filter system of J-PLUS and Southern Photometric Local Universe Survey (S-PLUS).

Results. We present maps of stellar mass surface density (Σ_⋆), mean stellar age and metallicity, star formation rate surface density (Σ_SFR), dust attenuation, and emission line properties such as fluxes and equivalent widths of the main optical lines. We explore relations among these properties. All galaxies exhibit a well-defined age-Σ_⋆ relation, except for the dwarf galaxies. Similarly, all galaxies follow local Σ_⋆-Σ_SFR star-forming main-sequence (MS) relations, with specific star formation rates that increase for less massive systems. M101 clearly exhibits a stellar Σ_⋆-metallicity relation, while other galaxies show either flatter or undefined relations. Nebular metallicities correlate with Σ_⋆ in all galaxies.

Conclusions. This study demonstrates the ability of J-PLUS to perform IFS-like analysis of galaxies, offering robust spatially resolved measurements of stellar populations and emission lines over large fields of view. The M101 group analysis showcases the potential for expanding such studies to other groups and clusters, contributing to the understanding of galaxy evolution across different environments.