arXiv subjects

Karen L. Masters

Publications and source records attributed to Karen L. Masters.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2018

A precise extragalactic test of General Relativity

Einstein's theory of gravity, General Relativity, has been precisely tested on Solar System scales, but the long-range nature of gravity is still poorly constrained. The nearby strong gravitational lens, ESO 325-G004, provides a laboratory to probe the weak-field regime of gravity and measure the spatial curvature generated per unit mass, $γ$. By reconstructing the observed light profile of the lensed arcs and the observed spatially resolved stellar kinematics with a single self-consistent model, we conclude that $γ= 0.97 \pm 0.09$ at 68% confidence. Our result is consistent with the prediction of 1 from General Relativity and provides a strong extragalactic constraint on the weak-field metric of gravity.

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arXiv2018

Signatures of the Galactic bar on stellar kinematics unveiled by APOGEE

Bars are common galactic structures in the local universe that play an important role in the secular evolution of galaxies, including the Milky Way. In particular, the velocity distribution of individual stars in our galaxy is useful to shed light on stellar dynamics, and provides information complementary to that inferred from the integrated light of external galaxies. However, since a wide variety of models reproduce the distribution of velocity and the velocity dispersion observed in the Milky Way, we look for signatures of the bar on higher-order moments of the line-of-sight velocity ($V_{los}$) distribution. We make use of two different numerical simulations --one that has developed a bar and one that remains nearly axisymmetric-- to compare them with observations in the latest APOGEE data release (SDSS DR14). This comparison reveals three interesting structures that support the notion that the Milky Way is a barred galaxy. A high skewness region found at positive longitudes constrains the orientation angle of the bar, and is incompatible with the orientation of the bar at $\ell=0^\circ$ proposed in previous studies. We also analyse the $V_{los}$ distributions in three regions, and introduce the Hellinger distance to quantify the differences among them. Our results show a strong non-Gaussian distribution both in the data and in the barred model, confirming the qualitative conclusions drawn from the velocity maps. In contrast to earlier work, we conclude it is possible to infer the presence of the bar from the kurtosis distribution.

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arXiv2018

Galaxy Zoo: constraining the origin of spiral arms

Since the discovery that the majority of low-redshift galaxies exhibit some level of spiral structure, a number of theories have been proposed as to why these patterns exist. A popular explanation is a process known as swing amplification, yet there is no observational evidence to prove that such a mechanism is at play. By using a number of measured properties of galaxies, and scaling relations where there are no direct measurements, we model samples of SDSS and S$^4$G spiral galaxies in terms of their relative halo, bulge and disc mass and size. Using these models, we test predictions of swing amplification theory with respect to directly measured spiral arm numbers from Galaxy Zoo 2. We find that neither a universal cored or cuspy inner dark matter profile can correctly predict observed numbers of arms in galaxies. However, by invoking a halo contraction/expansion model, a clear bimodality in the spiral galaxy population emerges. Approximately 40 per cent of unbarred spiral galaxies at $z \lesssim 0.1$ and $\mathrm{M_*} \gtrsim 10^{10} \mathrm{M_\odot}$ have spiral arms that can be modelled by swing amplification. This population display a significant correlation between predicted and observed spiral arm numbers, evidence that they are swing amplified modes. The remainder are dominated by two-arm systems for which the model predicts significantly higher arm numbers. These are likely driven by tidal interactions or other mechanisms.

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arXiv2018

Integrating human and machine intelligence in galaxy morphology classification tasks

Quantifying galaxy morphology is a challenging yet scientifically rewarding task. As the scale of data continues to increase with upcoming surveys, traditional classification methods will struggle to handle the load. We present a solution through an integration of visual and automated classifications, preserving the best features of both human and machine. We demonstrate the effectiveness of such a system through a re-analysis of visual galaxy morphology classifications collected during the Galaxy Zoo 2 (GZ2) project. We reprocess the top level question of the GZ2 decision tree with a Bayesian classification aggregation algorithm dubbed SWAP, originally developed for the Space Warps gravitational lens project. Through a simple binary classification scheme we increase the classification rate nearly 5-fold, classifying 226,124 galaxies in 92 days of GZ2 project time while reproducing labels derived from GZ2 classification data with 95.7% accuracy. We next combine this with a Random Forest machine learning algorithm that learns on a suite of nonparametric morphology indicators widely used for automated morphologies. We develop a decision engine that delegates tasks between human and machine, and demonstrate that the combined system provides at least a factor of 8 increase in the classification rate, classifying 210,803 galaxies in just 32 days of GZ2 project time with 93.1% accuracy. As the Random Forest algorithm requires a minimal amount of computation cost, this result has important implications for galaxy morphology identification tasks in the era of Euclid and other large scale surveys.

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arXiv2018

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Evidence of the importance of AGN feedback in low-mass galaxies

We present new evidence for AGN feedback in a subset of 69 quenched low-mass galaxies ($M_{\star} \lesssim 5\times10^{9}$ M$_{\odot}$, $M_{\rm{r}} > -19$) selected from the first two years of the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. The majority (85 per cent) of these quenched galaxies appear to reside in a group environment. We find 6 galaxies in our sample that appear to have an active AGN that is preventing on-going star-formation; this is the first time such a feedback mechanism has been observed in this mass range. Interestingly, five of these six galaxies have an ionised gas component that is kinematically offset from their stellar component, suggesting the gas is either recently accreted or outflowing. We hypothesise these six galaxies are low-mass equivalents to the "red geysers" observed in more massive galaxies. Of the other 63 galaxies in the sample, we find 8 do appear for have some low-level, residual star formation, or emission from hot, evolved stars. The remaining galaxies in our sample have no detectable ionised gas emission throughout their structures, consistent with them being quenched. This work shows the potential for understanding the detailed physical properties of dwarf galaxies through spatially resolved spectroscopy.

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arXiv2017

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Constraints on the Conditions for Star Formation in Galaxy Discs

Regions of disc galaxies with widespread star formation tend to be both gravitationally unstable and self-shielded against ionizing radiation, whereas extended outer discs with little or no star formation tend to be stable and unshielded on average. We explore what drives the transition between these two regimes, specifically whether discs first meet the conditions for self-shielding (parameterized by dust optical depth, $τ$) or gravitational instability (parameterized by a modified version of Toomre's instability parameters, $Q_{\rm thermal}$, which quantifies the stability of a gas disc that is thermally supported at $T=10^4$ K). We first introduce a new metric formed by the product of these quantities, $Q_{\rm thermal}τ$, which indicates whether the conditions for disk instability or self-shielding are easier to meet in a given region of a galaxy, and we discuss how $Q_{\rm thermal}τ$ can be constrained even in the absence of direct gas information. We then analyse a sample of 13 galaxies with resolved gas measurements and find that on average galaxies will reach the threshold for disk instabilities ($Q_{\rm thermal}<1$) before reaching the threshold for self-shielding ($τ>1$). Using integral field spectroscopic observations of a sample of 236 galaxies from the MaNGA survey, we find that the value of $Q_{\rm thermal}τ$ in star-forming discs is consistent with similar behavior. These results support a scenario where disc fragmentation and collapse occurs before self-shielding, suggesting that gravitational instabilities are the primary condition for widespread star formation in galaxy discs. Our results support similar conclusions based on recent galaxy simulations.

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arXiv2017

Galaxy Zoo: Secular evolution of barred galaxies from structural decomposition of multi-band images

We present the results of two-component (disc+bar) and three-component (disc+bar+bulge) multiwavelength 2D photometric decompositions of barred galaxies in five SDSS bands ($ugriz$). This sample of $\sim$3,500 nearby ($z<0.06$) galaxies with strong bars selected from the Galaxy Zoo citizen science project is the largest sample of barred galaxies to be studied using photometric decompositions which include a bar component. With detailed structural analysis we obtain physical quantities such as the bar- and bulge-to-total luminosity ratios, effective radii, Sérsic indices and colours of the individual components. We observe a clear difference in the colours of the components, the discs being bluer than the bars and bulges. An overwhelming fraction of bulge components have Sérsic indices consistent with being pseudobulges. By comparing the barred galaxies with a mass-matched and volume-limited sample of unbarred galaxies, we examine the connection between the presence of a large-scale galactic bar and the properties of discs and bulges. We find that the discs of unbarred galaxies are significantly bluer compared to the discs of barred galaxies, while there is no significant difference in the colours of the bulges. We find possible evidence of secular evolution via bars that leads to the build-up of pseudobulges and to the quenching of star formation in the discs. We identify a subsample of unbarred galaxies with an inner lens/oval and find that their properties are similar to barred galaxies, consistent with an evolutionary scenario in which bars dissolve into lenses. This scenario deserves further investigation through both theoretical and observational work.

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arXiv2017

Galaxy Zoo and SpArcFiRe: Constraints on spiral arm formation mechanisms from spiral arm number and pitch angles

In this paper we study the morphological properties of spiral galaxies, including measurements of spiral arm number and pitch angle. Using Galaxy Zoo 2, a stellar mass-complete sample of 6,222 SDSS spiral galaxies is selected. We use the machine vision algorithm SpArcFiRe to identify spiral arm features and measure their associated geometries. A support vector machine classifier is employed to identify reliable spiral features, with which we are able to estimate pitch angles for half of our sample. We use these machine measurements to calibrate visual estimates of arm tightness, and hence estimate pitch angles for our entire sample. The properties of spiral arms are compared with respect to various galaxy properties. The star formation properties of galaxies vary significantly with arm number, but not pitch angle. We find that galaxies hosting strong bars have spiral arms substantially ($4-6^\mathrm{o}$) looser than unbarred galaxies. Accounting for this, spiral arms associated with many-arm structures are looser (by 2$^\mathrm{o}$) than those in two-arm galaxies. In contrast to this average trend, galaxies with greater bulge-to-total stellar mass ratios display both fewer and looser spiral arms. This effect is primarily driven by the galaxy disc, such that galaxies with more massive discs contain more spiral arms with tighter pitch angles. This implies that galaxy central mass concentration is not the dominant cause of pitch angle and arm number variations between galaxies, which in turn suggests that not all spiral arms are governed by classical density waves or modal theories.

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arXiv2017

2MTF VI. Measuring the velocity power spectrum

We present measurements of the velocity power spectrum and constraints on the growth rate of structure $fσ_{8}$, at redshift zero, using the peculiar motions of 2,062 galaxies in the completed 2MASS Tully-Fisher survey (2MTF). To accomplish this we introduce a model for fitting the velocity power spectrum including the effects of non-linear Redshift Space Distortions (RSD), allowing us to recover unbiased fits down to scales $k=0.2\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$ without the need to smooth or grid the data. Our fitting methods are validated using a set of simulated 2MTF surveys. Using these simulations we also identify that the Gaussian distributed estimator for peculiar velocities of \cite{Watkins2015} is suitable for measuring the velocity power spectrum, but sub-optimal for the 2MTF data compared to using magnitude fluctuations $δm$, and that, whilst our fits are robust to a change in fiducial cosmology, future peculiar velocity surveys with more constraining power may have to marginalise over this. We obtain \textit{scale-dependent} constraints on the growth rate of structure in two bins, finding $fσ_{8} = [0.55^{+0.16}_{-0.13},0.40^{+0.16}_{-0.17}]$ in the ranges $k = [0.007-0.055, 0.55-0.150]\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$. We also find consistent results using four bins. Assuming scale-\textit{independence} we find a value $fσ_{8} = 0.51^{+0.09}_{-0.08}$, a $\sim16\%$ measurement of the growth rate. Performing a consistency check of General Relativity (GR) and combining our results with CMB data only we find $γ= 0.45^{+0.10}_{-0.11}$, a remarkable constraint considering the small number of galaxies. All of our results are completely independent of the effects of galaxy bias, and fully consistent with the predictions of GR (scale-independent $fσ_{8}$ and $γ\approx0.55$).

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arXiv2017

Galaxy Zoo: Finding offset discs and bars in SDSS galaxies

We use multi-wavelength SDSS images and Galaxy Zoo morphologies to identify a sample of $\sim$$270$ late-type galaxies with an off-centre bar. We measure offsets in the range 0.2-2.5 kpc between the photometric centres of the stellar disc and stellar bar. The measured offsets correlate with global asymmetries of the galaxies, with those with largest offsets showing higher lopsidedness. These findings are in good agreement with predictions from simulations of dwarf-dwarf tidal interactions producing off-centre bars. We find that the majority of galaxies with off-centre bars are of Magellanic type, with a median mass of $10^{9.6} M_{\odot}$, and 91% of them having $M_{\star}<3\times10^{10} M_{\odot}$, the characteristic mass at which galaxies start having higher central concentrations attributed to the presence of bulges. We conduct a search for companions to test the hypothesis of tidal interactions, but find that a similar fraction of galaxies with offset bars have companions within 100 kpc as galaxies with centred bars. Although this may be due to the incompleteness of the SDSS spectroscopic survey at the faint end, alternative scenarios that give rise to offset bars such as interactions with dark companions or the effect of lopsided halo potentials should be considered. Future observations are needed to confirm possible low mass companion candidates and to determine the shape of the dark matter halo, in order to find the explanation for the off-centre bars in these galaxies.

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arXiv2017

Galaxy Zoo: star-formation versus spiral arm number

Spiral arms are common features in low-redshift disc galaxies, and are prominent sites of star-formation and dust obscuration. However, spiral structure can take many forms: from galaxies displaying two strong `grand design' arms, to those with many `flocculent' arms. We investigate how these different arm types are related to a galaxy's star-formation and gas properties by making use of visual spiral arm number measurements from Galaxy Zoo 2. We combine UV and mid-IR photometry from GALEX and WISE to measure the rates and relative fractions of obscured and unobscured star formation in a sample of low-redshift SDSS spirals. Total star formation rate has little dependence on spiral arm multiplicity, but two-armed spirals convert their gas to stars more efficiently. We find significant differences in the fraction of obscured star-formation: an additional $\sim 10$ per cent of star-formation in two-armed galaxies is identified via mid-IR dust emission, compared to that in many-armed galaxies. The latter are also significantly offset below the IRX-$β$ relation for low-redshift star-forming galaxies. We present several explanations for these differences versus arm number: variations in the spatial distribution, sizes or clearing timescales of star-forming regions (i.e., molecular clouds), or contrasting recent star-formation histories.

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arXiv2017

SDSS IV MaNGA - The spatially resolved transition from star formation to quiescence

Using spatially resolved spectroscopy from SDSS-IV MaNGA we have demonstrated that low ionisation emission line regions (LIERs) in local galaxies result from photoionisation by hot evolved stars, not active galactic nuclei. LIERs are ubiquitous in both quiescent galaxies and in the central regions of galaxies where star formation takes place at larger radii. We refer to these two classes of galaxies as extended LIER (eLIER) and central LIER (cLIER) galaxies respectively. cLIERs are late type galaxies located around the green valley, in the transition region between the star formation main sequence and quiescent galaxies. These galaxies display regular disc rotation in both stars and gas, although featuring a higher central stellar velocity dispersion than star forming galaxies of the same mass. cLIERs are consistent with being slowly quenched inside-out; the transformation is associated with massive bulges, pointing towards the importance of bulge growth via secular evolution. eLIERs are morphologically early types and are indistinguishable from passive galaxies devoid of line emission in terms of their stellar populations, morphology and central stellar velocity dispersion. Ionised gas in eLIERs shows both disturbed and disc-like kinematics. When a large-scale flow/rotation is observed in the gas, it is often misaligned relative to the stellar component. These features indicate that eLIERs are passive galaxies harbouring a residual cold gas component, acquired mostly via external accretion. Importantly, quiescent galaxies devoid of line emission reside in denser environments and have significantly higher satellite fraction than eLIERs. Environmental effects thus represent the likely cause for the existence of line-less galaxies on the red sequence.

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arXiv2016

SDSS-IV MaNGA: stellar population gradients as a function of galaxy environment

We study the internal radial gradients of stellar population properties within $1.5\;R_{\rm e}$ and analyse the impact of galaxy environment. We use a representative sample of 721 galaxies with masses ranging between $10^{9}\;M_{\odot}$ to $10^{11.5}\;M_{\odot}$ from the SDSS-IV survey MaNGA. We split this sample by morphology into early-type and late-type galaxies. Using the full spectral fitting code FIREFLY, we derive the light and mass-weighted stellar population properties age and metallicity, and calculate the gradients of these properties. We use three independent methods to quantify galaxy environment, namely the $N^{th}$ nearest neighbour, the tidal strength parameter $Q$ and distinguish between central and satellite galaxies. In our analysis, we find that early-type galaxies generally exhibit shallow light-weighted age gradients in agreement with the literature and mass-weighted median age gradients tend to be slightly positive. Late-type galaxies, instead, have negative light-weighted age gradients. We detect negative metallicity gradients in both early and late-type galaxies that correlate with galaxy mass, with the gradients being steeper and the correlation with mass being stronger in late-types. We find, however, that stellar population gradients, for both morphological classifications, have no significant correlation with galaxy environment for all three characterisations of environment. Our results suggest that galaxy mass is the main driver of stellar population gradients in both early and late-type galaxies, and any environmental dependence, if present at all, must be very subtle.

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arXiv2016

SDSS-IV MaNGA: Spatially resolved star formation histories in galaxies as a function of galaxy mass and type

We study the internal gradients of stellar population properties within $1.5\;R_{\rm e}$ for a representative sample of 721 galaxies with stellar masses ranging between $10^{9}\;M_{\odot}$ to $10^{11.5}\;M_{\odot}$ from the SDSS-IV MaNGA IFU survey. Through the use of our full spectral fitting code FIREFLY, we derive light and mass-weighted stellar population properties and their radial gradients, as well as full star formation and metal enrichment histories. We also quanfify the impact that different stellar population models and full spectral fitting routines have on the derived stellar population properties, and the radial gradient measurements. In our analysis, we find that age gradients tend to be shallow for both early-type and late-type galaxies. {\em Mass-weighted} age gradients of early-types are positive ($\sim 0.09\; {\rm dex}/R_{\rm e}$) pointing to "outside-in" progression of star formation, while late-type galaxies have negative {\em light-weighted} age gradients ($\sim -0.11\; {\rm dex}/R_{\rm e}$), suggesting an "inside-out" formation of discs. We detect negative metallicity gradients in both early and late-type galaxies, but these are significantly steeper in late-types, suggesting that radial dependence of chemical enrichment processes and the effect of gas inflow and metal transport are far more pronounced in discs. Metallicity gradients of both morphological classes correlate with galaxy mass, with negative metallicity gradients becoming steeper with increasing galaxy mass. The correlation with mass is stronger for late-type galaxies, with a slope of $d(\nabla [Z/H])/d(\log M)\sim -0.2\pm 0.05\;$, compared to $d(\nabla [Z/H])/d(\log M)\sim -0.05\pm 0.05\;$ for early-types. This result suggests that the merger history plays a relatively small role in shaping metallicity gradients of galaxies.

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arXiv2016

Galaxy Zoo: Morphological Classifications for 120,000 Galaxies in HST Legacy Imaging

We present the data release paper for the Galaxy Zoo: Hubble (GZH) project. This is the third phase in a large effort to measure reliable, detailed morphologies of galaxies by using crowdsourced visual classifications of colour composite images. Images in GZH were selected from various publicly-released Hubble Space Telescope Legacy programs conducted with the Advanced Camera for Surveys, with filters that probe the rest-frame optical emission from galaxies out to $z \sim 1$. The bulk of the sample is selected to have $m_{I814W} < 23.5$,but goes as faint as $m_{I814W} < 26.8$ for deep images combined over 5 epochs. The median redshift of the combined samples is $z = 0.9 \pm 0.6$, with a tail extending out to $z \sim 4$. The GZH morphological data include measurements of both bulge- and disk-dominated galaxies, details on spiral disk structure that relate to the Hubble type, bar identification, and numerous measurements of clump identification and geometry. This paper also describes a new method for calibrating morphologies for galaxies of different luminosities and at different redshifts by using artificially-redshifted galaxy images as a baseline. The GZH catalogue contains both raw and calibrated morphological vote fractions for 119,849 galaxies, providing the largest dataset to date suitable for large-scale studies of galaxy evolution out to $z \sim 1$.

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arXiv2016

HIghMass - High HI Mass, HI-Rich Galaxies at $z\sim0$: Combined HI and H$_2$ Observations

We present resolved HI and CO observations of three galaxies from the HIghMass sample, a sample of HI-massive ($M_{HI} > 10^{10} M_\odot$), gas-rich ($M_{HI}$ in top $5\%$ for their $M_*$) galaxies identified in the ALFALFA survey. Despite their high gas fractions, these are not low surface brightness galaxies, and have typical specific star formation rates (SFR$/M_*$) for their stellar masses. The three galaxies have normal star formation rates for their HI masses, but unusually short star formation efficiency scale lengths, indicating that the star formation bottleneck in these galaxies is in the conversion of HI to H$_2$, not in converting H$_2$ to stars. In addition, their dark matter spin parameters ($λ$) are above average, but not exceptionally high, suggesting that their star formation has been suppressed over cosmic time but are now becoming active, in agreement with prior H$α$ observations.

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arXiv2016

Galaxy Zoo: Quantitative Visual Morphological Classifications for 48,000 galaxies from CANDELS

We present quantified visual morphologies of approximately 48,000 galaxies observed in three Hubble Space Telescope legacy fields by the Cosmic And Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) and classified by participants in the Galaxy Zoo project. 90% of galaxies have z < 3 and are observed in rest-frame optical wavelengths by CANDELS. Each galaxy received an average of 40 independent classifications, which we combine into detailed morphological information on galaxy features such as clumpiness, bar instabilities, spiral structure, and merger and tidal signatures. We apply a consensus-based classifier weighting method that preserves classifier independence while effectively down-weighting significantly outlying classifications. After analysing the effect of varying image depth on reported classifications, we also provide depth-corrected classifications which both preserve the information in the deepest observations and also enable the use of classifications at comparable depths across the full survey. Comparing the Galaxy Zoo classifications to previous classifications of the same galaxies shows very good agreement; for some applications the high number of independent classifications provided by Galaxy Zoo provides an advantage in selecting galaxies with a particular morphological profile, while in others the combination of Galaxy Zoo with other classifications is a more promising approach than using any one method alone. We combine the Galaxy Zoo classifications of "smooth" galaxies with parametric morphologies to select a sample of featureless disks at 1 < z < 3, which may represent a dynamically warmer progenitor population to the settled disk galaxies seen at later epochs.

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arXiv2016

SDSS-IV MaNGA: A serendipitous observation of a potential gas accretion event

The nature of warm, ionized gas outside of galaxies may illuminate several key galaxy evolutionary processes. A serendipitous observation by the MaNGA survey has revealed a large, asymmetric H$α$ complex with no optical counterpart that extends $\approx8"$ ($\approx6.3$ kpc) beyond the effective radius of a dusty, starbursting galaxy. This H$α$ extension is approximately three times the effective radius of the host galaxy and displays a tail-like morphology. We analyze its gas-phase metallicities, gaseous kinematics, and emission-line ratios, and discuss whether this H$α$ extension could be diffuse ionized gas, a gas accretion event, or something else. We find that this warm, ionized gas structure is most consistent with gas accretion through recycled wind material, which could be an important process that regulates the low-mass end of the galaxy stellar mass function.

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