TY - JOUR
T1 - First Cospatial Comparison of Stellar, Neutral-gas, and Ionized-gas Metallicities in a Metal-rich Galaxy
T2 - M83
AU - Hernandez, Svea
AU - Aloisi, Alessandra
AU - James, Bethan L.
AU - Kumari, Nimisha
AU - Berg, Danielle
AU - Adamo, Angela
AU - Blair, William P.
AU - Faucher-Giguere, Claude André
AU - Fox, Andrew J.
AU - Gurvich, Alexander B.
AU - Hafen, Zachary
AU - Heckman, Timothy M.
AU - Lebouteiller, Vianney
AU - Long, Knox S.
AU - Skillman, Evan D.
AU - Tumlinson, Jason
AU - Whitmore, Bradley C.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..
PY - 2021/2/20
Y1 - 2021/2/20
N2 - We carry out a comparative analysis of the metallicities from the stellar, neutral-gas, and ionized-gas components in the metal-rich spiral galaxy M83. We analyze spectroscopic observations taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Large Binocular Telescope, and the Very Large Telescope. We detect a clear depletion of the H i gas, as observed from the H i column densities in the nuclear region of this spiral galaxy. We find column densities of log[N(H i) cm-2] < 20.0 at galactocentric distances of <0.18 kpc, in contrast to column densities of log[N(H i) cm-2] ∼ 21.0 in the galactic disk, a trend observed in other nearby spiral galaxies. We measure a metallicity gradient of -0.03 ± 0.01 dex kpc-1 for the ionized gas, comparable to the metallicity gradient of a local benchmark of 49 nearby star-forming galaxies of -0.026 ± 0.002 dex kpc-1. Our cospatial metallicity comparison of the multiphase gas and stellar populations shows excellent agreement outside of the nucleus of the galaxy, hinting at a scenario where the mixing of newly synthesized metals from the most massive stars in the star clusters takes longer than their lifetimes (∼10 Myr). Finally, our work shows that caution must be taken when studying the metallicity gradient of the neutral-gas component in star-forming galaxies, since this can be strongly biased, as these environments can be dominated by molecular gas. In these regions the typical metallicity tracers can provide inaccurate abundances, as they may trace both the neutral- and molecular-gas components.
AB - We carry out a comparative analysis of the metallicities from the stellar, neutral-gas, and ionized-gas components in the metal-rich spiral galaxy M83. We analyze spectroscopic observations taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, the Large Binocular Telescope, and the Very Large Telescope. We detect a clear depletion of the H i gas, as observed from the H i column densities in the nuclear region of this spiral galaxy. We find column densities of log[N(H i) cm-2] < 20.0 at galactocentric distances of <0.18 kpc, in contrast to column densities of log[N(H i) cm-2] ∼ 21.0 in the galactic disk, a trend observed in other nearby spiral galaxies. We measure a metallicity gradient of -0.03 ± 0.01 dex kpc-1 for the ionized gas, comparable to the metallicity gradient of a local benchmark of 49 nearby star-forming galaxies of -0.026 ± 0.002 dex kpc-1. Our cospatial metallicity comparison of the multiphase gas and stellar populations shows excellent agreement outside of the nucleus of the galaxy, hinting at a scenario where the mixing of newly synthesized metals from the most massive stars in the star clusters takes longer than their lifetimes (∼10 Myr). Finally, our work shows that caution must be taken when studying the metallicity gradient of the neutral-gas component in star-forming galaxies, since this can be strongly biased, as these environments can be dominated by molecular gas. In these regions the typical metallicity tracers can provide inaccurate abundances, as they may trace both the neutral- and molecular-gas components.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85102704088&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85102704088&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/abd6c4
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/abd6c4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102704088
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 908
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 226
ER -