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Renbin Yan

Publications and source records attributed to Renbin Yan.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

Post-Starburst Galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA

Post-starburst galaxies, identified by their unusually strong Balmer absorption lines and weaker than average emission lines, have traditionally been selected based on their central stellar populations. Here we identify 360 galaxies with post-starburst regions from the MaNGA integral field survey and classify these galaxies into three types: 31 galaxies with central post-starburst regions (CPSB), 37 galaxies with off-center ring-like post-starburst regions (RPSB) and 292 galaxies with irregular post-starburst regions (IPSB). Focussing on the CPSB and RPSB samples, and comparing their radial gradients in D$_n$4000, H$δ_{\rm A}$ and W(H$α$) to control samples, we find that while the CPSBs have suppressed star formation throughout their bulge and disk, and clear evidence of rapid decline of star formation in the central regions, the RPSBs only show clear evidence of recently rapidly suppressed star formation in their outer regions and an ongoing central starburst. The radial profiles in mass-weighted age and stellar $v/σ$ indicate that CPSBs and RPSBs are not simply different evolutionary stages of the same event, rather that CPSB galaxies are caused by a significant disruptive event, while RPSB galaxies are caused by disruption of gas fuelling to the outer regions. Compared to the control samples, both CPSB and RPSB galaxies show a higher fraction of interactions/mergers, misaligned gas or bars that might be the cause of the gas inflows and subsequent quenching.

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Machine Learning Classifiers for Intermediate Redshift Emission Line Galaxies

Classification of intermediate redshift ($z$ = 0.3--0.8) emission line galaxies as star-forming galaxies, composite galaxies, active galactic nuclei (AGN), or low-ionization nuclear emission regions (LINERs) using optical spectra alone was impossible because the lines used for standard optical diagnostic diagrams: [NII], H$α$, and [SII] are redshifted out of the observed wavelength range. In this work, we address this problem using four supervised machine learning classification algorithms: $k$-nearest neighbors (KNN), support vector classifier (SVC), random forest (RF), and a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) neural network. For input features, we use properties that can be measured from optical galaxy spectra out to $z < 0.8$---[OIII]/H$β$, [OII]/H$β$, [OIII] line width, and stellar velocity dispersion---and four colors ($u-g$, $g-r$, $r-i$, and $i-z$) corrected to $z=0.1$. The labels for the low redshift emission line galaxy training set are determined using standard optical diagnostic diagrams. RF has the best area under curve (AUC) score for classifying all four galaxy types, meaning highest distinguishing power. Both the AUC scores and accuracies of the other algorithms are ordered as MLP$>$SVC$>$KNN. The classification accuracies with all eight features (and the four spectroscopically-determined features only) are 93.4% (92.3%) for star-forming galaxies, 69.4% (63.7%) for composite galaxies, 71.8% (67.3%) for AGNs, and 65.7% (60.8%) for LINERs. The stacked spectrum of galaxies of the same type as determined by optical diagnostic diagrams at low redshift and RF at intermediate redshift are broadly consistent. Our publicly available code (https://github.com/zkdtc/MLC_ELGs) and trained models will be instrumental for classifying emission line galaxies in upcoming wide-field spectroscopic surveys.

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Deep ugrizY Imaging and DEEP2/3 Spectroscopy: A Photometric Redshift Testbed for LSST and Public Release of Data from the DEEP3 Galaxy Redshift Survey

We present catalogs of calibrated photometry and spectroscopic redshifts in the Extended Groth Strip, intended for studies of photometric redshifts (photo-z's). The data includes ugriz photometry from CFHTLS and Y-band photometry from the Subaru Suprime camera, as well as spectroscopic redshifts from the DEEP2, DEEP3 and 3D-HST surveys. These catalogs incorporate corrections to produce effectively matched-aperture photometry across all bands, based upon object size information available in the catalog and Moffat profile point spread function fits. We test this catalog with a simple machine learning-based photometric redshift algorithm based upon Random Forest regression, and find that the corrected aperture photometry leads to significant improvement in photo-z accuracy compared to the original SExtractor catalogs from CFHTLS and Subaru. The deep ugrizY photometry and spectroscopic redshifts are well-suited for empirical tests of photometric redshift algorithms for LSST. The resulting catalogs are publicly available. We include a basic summary of the strategy of the DEEP3 Galaxy Redshift Survey to accompany the recent public release of DEEP3 data.

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Mapping Gas Phase Abundances and Enrichment Patterns Across Galaxy Disks

The distribution of gas-phase abundances in galaxy disks encodes the history of nucleosynthesis and transport through the interstellar medium (ISM) over cosmic time. Multi-object and high resolution integral-field spectroscopy have started to measure these distributions across hundreds of HII regions individually resolved at $\lesssim 100$ pc scales in a handful of objects, but in the coming decade these studies will expand to larger samples of galaxies. This will allow us to understand the role of feedback and turbulence in driving the mixing and diffusion of metals in the ISM, and statistically assess the role of galaxy environment and disk dynamics in modifying how mixing proceeds. Detailed searches for over- and under-enriched regions can address to what extent star formation is triggered by previous generations of star formation and by pristine and recycled gas flows. Local galaxies, for which these detailed measurements will be possible within the next decade, will inform the interpretation of integrated measurements at high-z, where very different dynamical gas-rich environments are found in early disk galaxies. Currently, progress in the field is severely hampered by the 0.2-0.3 dex level systematic uncertainties plaguing nebular abundance diagnostics. Improving our detailed understanding of ionized nebulae at $<$20 pc scales will help us find a solution to this problem, which will prove key to the study of metal enrichment and mixing across the galaxy population in the next decade.

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SDSS-IV MaNGA: Environmental dependence of the Mgb/ -sigma_* relation for nearby galaxies

We use a sample of ~3000 galaxies from the MaNGA MPL-7 internal data release to study the alpha abundance distribution within low-redshift galaxies. We use the Lick index ratio Mgb/ as an alpha abundance indicator to study relationships between the alpha abundance distribution and galaxy properties such as effective stellar velocity dispersion within 0.3 effective radii (sigma_*), galaxy environment, and dark matter halo formation time (z_f). We find that (1) all galaxies show a tight correlation between Mgb/ and sigma_*; (2) `old' (H_beta < 3) low-sigma_* galaxies in high local density environment and inner regions within galaxy groups are enhanced in Mgb/ , while `young' (H_beta>3) galaxies and high-mass galaxies show no or less environmental dependence; (3) `old' galaxies with high-z_f show enhanced Mgb/ over low- and medium-z_f; (4) Mgb/ gradients are close to zero and show dependence on sigma_* but no obvious dependence on the environment or z_f. Our study indicates that stellar velocity dispersion or galaxy mass is the main parameter driving the Mgb/ enhancement, although environments appear to have modest effects, particularly for low- and medium-mass galaxies.

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Recovering stellar population parameters via different population models and stellar libraries

Three basic ingredients are required to generate a simple stellar population (SSP) library, i.e., an initial mass function (IMF), a stellar evolution model/isochrones, and an empirical/theoretical stellar spectral library. However, there are still some uncertainties to the determination and understanding of these ingredients. We perform the spectral fitting to test the relative parameter offsets between these uncertainties using two different stellar population models, two different empirical stellar libraries, two different isochrones, and the Salpeter and Chabrier IMFs. Based on these setups, we select five SSP libraries generated with the Galaxev/STELIB and Vazdekis/MILES models, and apply them to the pPXF full-spectrum fitting of both MaNGA and mock spectra. We find that: 1) Compared to the Galaxev/STELIB model, spectral fitting qualities with the Vazdekis/MILES model have significant improvements for those metal-rich (especially over-solar) spectra, which cause better reduced $χ^2$ distributions and more precisely fitted absorption lines. This might due to the lack of metal rich stars in the empirical STELIB library, or code improvement of the Vazdekis model. 2) When applying the Vazdekis/MILES model for spectral fitting, the IMF variation will lead to not only a systematic offset in $M_*/L_r$, but also offsets in age and metallicity, and these offsets increase with increasing stellar population ages. However, the IMF-variation caused metallicity offsets disappear in the case of Galaxev/STELIB based libraries. 3) The Padova2000 model provides a better match to the MaNGA galaxy spectra at [M/H]$_L<-1.0$, while the BaSTI model match the local galaxy spectra better at [M/H]$_L>-1.0$. Current tests suggest that spectral fitting with the Vazdekis/MILES+BaSTI combination would be a better choice for local galaxies.

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X-ray Surface Brightness Profiles of Optically Selected Active Galactic Nuclei: Comparison with X-ray AGN

We use data from the All Wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey to construct stacked X-ray maps of optically bright active galaxies (AGN) and an associated control sample of galaxies at high redshift (z less than 0.6). From our analysis of the surface brightness profiles obtained from these X-ray maps, we find evidence of feedback from the active nuclei. We find that excluding galaxies and AGN, residing in group environments, from our samples enhances the significance of our detection. Our results support the tentative findings of Chatterjee et al. who use X-ray selected AGN for their analysis. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of quantifying AGN feedback and show that the current method can be used to extract X-ray source population in high redshift galaxies.

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SDSS-IV MaNGA: The Roles of AGNs and Dynamical Processes in Star Formation Quenching in Nearby Disk Galaxies

We study how star formation (SF) is quenched in low-redshift disk galaxies with integral-field spectroscopy. We select 131 face-on spiral galaxies with stellar mass greater than $\rm 3\times10^{10}M_\odot$, and with spatially resolved spectrum from MaNGA DR13. We subdivide the sample into four groups based on the offset of their global specific star formation rate (SFR) from the star-forming main sequence and stack the radial profiles of stellar mass and SFR. By comparing the stacked profiles of quiescent and star-forming disk galaxies, we find that the decrease of the global SFR is caused by the suppression of SF at all radii, but with a more significant drop from the center to the outer regions following an inside-out pattern. As the global specific SFR decreases, the central stellar mass, the fraction of disk galaxies hosting stellar bars, and active galactic nuclei (AGNs; including both LINERs and Seyferts) all increase, indicating dynamical processes and AGN feedback are possible contributors to the inside-out quenching of SF in the local universe. However, if we include only Seyferts, or AGNs with ${\rm EW(Hα)>3Å}$, the increasing trend of AGN fraction with decreasing global sSFR disappears. Therefore, if AGN feedback is contributing to quenching, we suspect that it operates in the low-luminosity AGN mode, as indicated by the increasing large bulge mass of the more passive disk galaxies.

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Marvin: A Toolkit for Streamlined Access and Visualization of the SDSS-IV MaNGA Data Set

The Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey, one of three core programs of the fourth-generation Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-IV), is producing a massive, high-dimensional integral field spectroscopic data set. However, leveraging the MaNGA data set to address key questions about galaxy formation presents serious data-related challenges due to the combination of its spatially inter-connected measurements and sheer volume. For each galaxy, the MaNGA pipelines produce relatively large data files to preserve the spatial correlations of the spectra and measurements, but this comes at the expense of storing the data set in a coarsely-chunked manner. The coarse chunking and total volume of the data make it time-consuming to download and curate locally-stored data. Thus, accessing, querying, visually exploring, and performing statistical analyses across the whole data set at a fine-grained scale is extremely challenging using just FITS files. To overcome these challenges, we have developed \marvin: a toolkit consisting of a Python package, Application Programming Interface (API), and web application utilizing a remote database. \marvin's robust and sustainable design minimizes maintenance, while facilitating user-contributed extensions such as high level analysis code. Finally, we are in the process of abstracting out \marvin's core functionality into a separate product so that it can serve as a foundation for others to develop \marvin-like systems for new science applications.

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Detecting Radio-AGN signatures in Red geysers

A new class of quiescent galaxies harboring possible AGN-driven winds has been discovered using spatially resolved optical spectroscopy from the ongoing SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. These galaxies, termed "red geysers", constitute $5-10\%$ of the local quiescent population and are characterized by narrow bisymmetric patterns in ionized gas emission features. Cheung et al. argued that these galaxies host large-scale AGN-driven winds that may play a role in suppressing star formation at late times. In this work, we test the hypothesis that AGN activity is ultimately responsible for the red geyser phenomenon. We compare the nuclear radio activity of the red geysers to a matched control sample with similar stellar mass, redshift, rest frame $NUV-r$ color, axis ratio and presence of ionized gas. We have used the 1.4 GHz radio continuum data from VLA FIRST survey to stack the radio flux from the red geyser and control samples. In addition to a 3 times higher FIRST detection rate, we find that red geysers have a 5$σ$ higher level of average radio flux than control galaxies. After restricting to rest-frame $NUV-r$ color $>$ 5 and checking mid-IR WISE photometry, we rule out star formation contamination and conclude that red geysers are associated with more active AGN. Red geysers and a possibly-related class with disturbed H$α$ emission account for 40\% of all radio-detected red galaxies with $\rm log~(M_\star/M_\odot) < 11$. Our results support a picture in which episodic AGN activity drives large-scale-relatively weak ionized winds that may provide a feedback mechanism for many early-type galaxies.

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Spectroscopic Constraints on the Build-up of the Intracluster Light in the Coma Cluster

The stellar content of the intracluster light (ICL) provides unique insight into the hierarchical assembly process of galaxy clusters.However, the ICL is difficult to study due to its low surface brightness and large physical extent. We present optical spectra of three ICL regions in the Coma cluster, located between 100-180kpc from their nearest BCGs: NGC4889 and NGC4874. The mean surface brightness of the three ICL regions are μ$_g$~25.3-26.2mag arcsec$^{-2}$. IFU spectroscopy with 13.5 hr on-source integration time were acquired as part of an ancillary program within the SDSS-IV MaNGA survey. We stacked the 127 individual fiber spectra in each IFU in order to achieve a 1σ limiting surface brightness of 27.9mag arcsec$^{-2}$, corresponding to a mean S/N in the optical of 21.6,9.6,and 11.6Å$^{-1}$. We apply stellar population models to the stacked spectra, and measure the recession velocities, velocity dispersions ($σ$), stellar ages, and [Fe/H]. Our results show that the $σ$ of ICL regions are very high, indicating the stars are tracing the gravitational potential of the cluster, instead of any individual galaxy. The line-of-sight velocities of the three ICL regions are different from each other by ~700km/s, while the velocity of each region is similar to the closest BCG. This suggests that the ICL regions are associated with two distinct subclusters centered on NGC4889 and NGC4874.The stellar populations of these regions are old and metal poor, with ages of 7-12Gyr, and [Fe/H] of -0.8 to -0.6 dex. From the derived age and [Fe/H], the build-up of ICL in Coma is likely to be through the accretion of low mass galaxies or the tidal stripping of the outskirts of massive galaxies that have ended their star formation early on, instead of directly from major mergers of massive galaxies.

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Nitrogen-to-Oxygen Abundance Ratio Variation In Quiescent Galaxies

For the first time, we establish a gas phase abundance pattern calibration for quiescent galaxies using optical emission lines. Quiescent galaxies have warm ionized gas showing line ratios similar to low-ionization nuclear emission line regions (LINER). The ionization mechanism for the gas is still an unsettled puzzle. Despite the uncertainty in the ionization mechanism, we argue that we can still infer certain gas phase abundance pattern from first principles. We show that the relative trend in N/O abundance can still be reliably measured based on [NII]6548,6583/[OII]3726,3729 and a direct measurement of the electron temperature. We construct a composite direct temperature tracer that is independent of extinction correction, by combining [OII] 3726,3729/[OII] 7320,7330 and [SII] 6716,6730/[SII] 4068,4076 and canceling out the effect of extinction, as these involve the easiest-to-detect auroral lines in quiescent galaxies. With theoretical modeling, we establish the calibration for N/O based on [NII]/[OII] and a temperature tracer. We apply this technique to quiescent galaxies in the nearby Universe and find they span a range of 0.35 dex in N/O ratio from 17-percentile to 83-percentiles of the whole distribution. These measurements can shed light on the chemical enrichment history of the warm ionized gas in quiescent galaxies.

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Shocks or Photoionization: Direct Temperature Measurements of the Low-Ionization Gas in Quiescent Galaxies

The ionization mechanism of the low-ionization gas in quiescent red sequence galaxies has been a long-standing puzzle. Direct temperature measurements would put strong constraints on this issue. We carefully selected a sample of quiescent red sequence galaxies from SDSS. We bin them into three bins with different [N II]/Hα and [N II]/[O II] ratios, and we measure the temperature-sensitive [O III] λ4363, [N II] λ5755, [S II] λλ4068,4076, and [O II] λλ7320,7330 lines in the stacked spectra. The [S II] doublet ratios indicate the line-emitting gas is in the low density regime (~10-100 cm$^{-3}$).We found the temperatures in the S+ zones to be around 8000K, the temperatures in the O+ zones to be around $1.1-1.5\times10^4$K, and the temperatures in the N+ zones to be around $1-1.4\times10^4$K. The [O III] λ4363 line is not robustly detected. We found that the extinction corrections derived from Balmer decrements would yield unphysical relationships between the temperatures of the S+ zones and O+ zones, indicating that the extinction is significantly overestimated by the measured Balmer decrements. We compared these line ratios with model predictions for three ionization mechanisms: photoionization by hot evolved stars, shocks, and turbulent mixing layers. For both the photoionization and shock models, the hot temperatures inferred from [S II] and [N II] coronal-to-strong line ratios require metallicities to be significantly subsolar. However, the [N II]/[O II] line ratios require them to be supersolar. None of the models could simultaneously explain all of the observed line ratios, neither could their combinations do.

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Low Metallicities and Old Ages for Three Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

A large population of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs) was recently discovered in the Coma cluster. Here we present optical spectra of three such UDGs, DF7, DF44 and DF17, which have central surface brightnesses of $μ_g \approx 24.4-25.1$ mag arcsec$^{-2}$. The spectra were acquired as part of an ancillary program within the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey. We stacked 19 fibers in the central regions from larger integral field units (IFUs) per source. With over 13.5 hours of on-source integration we achieved a mean signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) in the optical of $9.5$Å$^{-1}$, $7.9$Å$^{-1}$ and $5.0$Å$^{-1}$, respectively, for DF7, DF44 and DF17. Stellar population models applied to these spectra enable measurements of recession velocities, ages and metallicities. The recession velocities of DF7, DF44 and DF17 are $6599^{+40}_{-25}$km/s, $6402^{+41}_{-39}$km/s and $8315^{+43}_{-43}$km/s, spectroscopically confirming that all of them reside in the Coma cluster. The stellar populations of these three galaxies are old and metal-poor, with ages of $7.9^{+3.6}_{-2.5}$Gyr, $8.9^{+4.3}_{-3.3}$Gyr and $9.1^{+3.9}_{-5.5}$Gyr, and iron abundances of $\mathrm{[Fe/H]}$ $-1.0^{+0.3}_{-0.4}$, $-1.3^{+0.4}_{-0.4}$ and $-0.8^{+0.5}_{-0.5}$, respectively. Their stellar masses are $3$-$6\times10^8 M_\odot$. The UDGs in our sample are as old or older than galaxies at similar stellar mass or velocity dispersion (only DF44 has an independently measured dispersion). They all follow the well-established stellar mass$-$stellar metallicity relation, while DF44 lies below the velocity dispersion-metallicity relation. These results, combined with the fact that UDGs are unusually large for their stellar mass, suggest that stellar mass plays a more important role in setting stellar population properties for these galaxies than either size or surface brightness.

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Recovering stellar population parameters via two full-spectrum fitting algorithms in the absence of model uncertainties

Using mock spectra based on Vazdekis/MILES library fitted within the wavelength region 3600-7350Å, we analyze the bias and scatter on the resulting physical parameters induced by the choice of fitting algorithms and observational uncertainties, but avoid effects of those model uncertainties. We consider two full-spectrum fitting codes: pPXF and STARLIGHT, in fitting for stellar population age, metallicity, mass-to-light ratio, and dust extinction. With pPXF we find that both the bias in the population parameters and the scatter in the recovered logarithmic values follows the expected trend. The bias increases for younger ages and systematically makes recovered ages older, $M_*/L_r$ larger and metallicities lower than the true values. For reference, at S/N=30, and for the worst case ($t=10^8$yr), the bias is 0.06 dex in $M_*/L_r$, 0.03 dex in both age and [M/H]. There is no significant dependence on either E(B-V) or the shape of the error spectrum. Moreover, the results are consistent for both our 1-SSP and 2-SSP tests. With the STARLIGHT algorithm, we find trends similar to pPXF, when the input E(B-V)<0.2 mag. However, with larger input E(B-V), the biases of the output parameter do not converge to zero even at the highest S/N and are strongly affected by the shape of the error spectra. This effect is particularly dramatic for youngest age, for which all population parameters can be strongly different from the input values, with significantly underestimated dust extinction and [M/H], and larger ages and $M_*/L_r$. Results degrade when moving from our 1-SSP to the 2-SSP tests. The STARLIGHT convergence to the true values can be improved by increasing Markov Chains and annealing loops to the "slow mode". For the same input spectrum, pPXF is about two order of magnitudes faster than STARLIGHT's "default mode" and about three order of magnitude faster than STARLIGHT's "slow mode".

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SDSS IV MaNGA - sSFR profiles and the slow quenching of discs in green valley galaxies

We study radial profiles in H$α$ equivalent width and specific star formation rate (sSFR) derived from spatially-resolved SDSS-IV MaNGA spectroscopy to gain insight on the physical mechanisms that suppress star formation and determine a galaxy's location in the SFR-$\rm M_\star$ diagram. Even within the star-forming `main sequence', the measured sSFR decreases with stellar mass, both in an integrated and spatially-resolved sense. Flat sSFR radial profiles are observed for $\rm log(M_\star/ M_\odot) < 10.5$, while star-forming galaxies of higher mass show a significant decrease in sSFR in the central regions, a likely consequence of both larger bulges and an inside-out growth history. Our primary focus is the green valley, constituted by galaxies lying below the star formation main sequence, but not fully passive. In the green valley we find sSFR profiles that are suppressed with respect to star-forming galaxies of the same mass at all galactocentric distances out to 2 effective radii. The responsible quenching mechanism therefore appears to affect the entire galaxy, not simply an expanding central region. The majority of green valley galaxies of $\rm log(M_\star/ M_\odot) > 10.0$ are classified spectroscopically as central low-ionisation emission-line regions (cLIERs). Despite displaying a higher central stellar mass concentration, the sSFR suppression observed in cLIER galaxies is not simply due to the larger mass of the bulge. Drawing a comparison sample of star forming galaxies with the same $\rm M_\star$ and $\rm Σ_{1~kpc}$ (the mass surface density within 1 kpc), we show that a high $\rm Σ_{1~kpc}$ is not a sufficient condition for determining central quiescence.

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SDSS-IV MaNGA: The Spatially Resolved Stellar Initial Mass Function in $\sim$400 Early-Type Galaxies

MaNGA provides the opportunity to make precise spatially resolved measurements of the IMF slope in galaxies owing to its unique combination of spatial resolution, wavelength coverage and sample size. We derive radial gradients in age, element abundances and IMF slope analysing optical and near-infrared absorption features from stacked spectra out to the half-light radius of 366 early-type galaxies with masses $9.9 - 10.8\;\log M/M_{\odot}$. We find flat gradients in age and [$α$/Fe] ratio, as well as negative gradients in metallicity, consistent with the literature. We further derive significant negative gradients in the [Na/Fe] ratio with galaxy centres being well enhanced in Na abundance by up to 0.5 dex. Finally, we find a gradient in IMF slope with a bottom-heavy IMF in the centre (typical mass excess factor of 1.5) and a Milky Way-type IMF at the half-light radius. This pattern is mass-dependent with the lowest mass galaxies in our sample featuring only a shallow gradient around a Milky Way IMF. Our results imply the local IMF-$σ$ relation within galaxies to be even steeper than the global relation and hint towards the local metallicity being the dominating factor behind the IMF variations. We also employ different stellar population models in our analysis and show that a radial IMF gradient is found independently of the stellar population model used. A similar analysis of the Wing-Ford band provides inconsistent results and further evidence of the difficulty in measuring and modelling this particular feature.

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SDSS-IV MaNGA: Star formation cessation in low-redshift galaxies I. Dependence on stellar mass and structural properties

We investigate radial gradients in the recent star formation history (SFH) using 1917 galaxies with $0.01<z<0.14$ and integral-field spectroscopy from the ongoing MaNGA survey. For each galaxy, we obtain two-dimensional maps and radial profiles for three spectroscopically-measured parameters that are sensitive to the recent SFH: D$_n$(4000) (the 4000Å break), EW(H$δ_A$) (equivalent width of the H$δ$ absorption line), and EW(H$α$) (equivalent width of the H$α$ emission line). We find the majority of the spaxels in these galaxies are consistent with models with continuously declining star formation rate, indicating that starbursts occur rarely in local galaxies. We classify the galaxies into three classes: fully star-forming (SF), partly quenched (PQ) and totally quenched (TQ), according to the fraction of quenched area within 1.5 times the effective radius, $f_Q(1.5R_e)$. We find that galaxies less massive than $10^{10}$M$_{\odot}$ present at most weak radial gradients in all the diagnostic parameters. In contrast, galaxies with stellar mass above $10^{10}$M$_{\odot}$ present significant gradients in all the three diagnostic parameters if classified as SF or PQ, but show weak gradients in D$_n$(4000) and EW(H$δ_A$) and no gradients in EW(H$α$) if in the TQ class. This implies the existence of a critical stellar mass, at $\sim10^{10}$M$_{\odot}$, above which the star formation in a galaxy gets shutdown from the inside out. Galaxies tend to evolve synchronously from inner to outer regions before their mass reaches the critical value. We have further divided the sample at fixed mass by both bulge-to-total luminosity ratio and morphological type, finding that our conclusions hold regardless of these factors: it appears that the presence of a central dense object is not a driving parameter, but rather a byproduct of the star formation cessation process.

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