The H$\alpha$ concentration of local star-forming galaxies: implications for galaxy structure formation

Abstract

In this work, we present a study on the H$\alpha$ emission line flux concentration of 3098 low-redshift star-forming galaxies (SFGs) using the MaNGA data available in the Data Release 17 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We define the H$\alpha$ flux concentration index ($C_{\rm H\alpha}$) as $C_{\rm H\alpha}=F_{\rm H\alpha,0.8~R_e}/F_{\rm H\alpha,1.5~R_e}$, where $F_{\rm H\alpha,0.8~R_e}$ and $F_{\rm H\alpha,1.5~R_e}$ are the cumulative H$\alpha$ flux inside $0.8$ and $1.5$ $r-$band effective radius, respectively. We find that $C_{\rm H\alpha}$ is strongly correlated with the luminosity weighted stellar age gradient. $C_{\rm H\alpha}$ is also sensitive to environmental effects, in the sense that low-mass satellite galaxies below the star formation main sequence tend to have higher $C_{\rm H\alpha}$. For central galaxies, we find that massive disk galaxies with enhanced star formation rate tend to have higher $C_{\rm H\alpha}$, while such a phenomenon is not seen in the low-mass regime. We interpret this as evidence that compaction events more frequently occur in the high-mass regime, which eventually resulting in the buildup of prominent bulges in massive SFGs. Implications of these findings on galaxy structure formation are discussed.