SDSS IV MaNGA: Deep observations of extra-planar, diffuse ionized gas around late-type galaxies from stacked IFU spectra

A. Jones, G. Kauffmann, R. D'Souza, D. Bizyaev, D. Law, L. Haffner, Y. Bahé, B. Andrews, M. Bershady, J. Brownstein, K. Bundy, B. Cherinka, A. Diamond-Stanic, N. Drory, R. A. Riffel, S. F. Sánchez, D. Thomas, D. Wake, R. Yan, K. Zhang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

29 Scopus citations

Abstract

We have conducted a study of extra-planar diffuse ionized gas using the first year data from the MaNGA IFU survey. We have stacked spectra from 49 edge-on, late-type galaxies as a function of distance from the midplane of the galaxy. With this technique we can detect the bright emission lines Hα, Hβ, [O ii]λλ3726, 3729, [O iii]λ5007, [N ii]λλ6549, 6584, and [S ii]λλ6717, 6731 out to about 4 kpc above the midplane. With 16 galaxies we can extend this analysis out to about 9 kpc, i.e. a distance of ~2Re, vertically from the midplane. In the halo, the surface brightnesses of the [O ii] and Hα emission lines are comparable, unlike in the disk where Hα dominates. When we split the sample by specific star-formation rate, concentration index, and stellar mass, each subsample's emission line surface brightness profiles and ratios differ, indicating that extra-planar gas properties can vary. The emission line surface brightnesses of the gas around high specific star-formation rate galaxies are higher at all distances, and the line ratios are closer to ratios characteristic of H ii regions compared with low specific star-formation rate galaxies. The less concentrated and lower stellar mass samples exhibit line ratios that are more like H ii regions at larger distances than their more concentrated and higher stellar mass counterparts. The largest difference between different subsamples occurs when the galaxies are split by stellar mass. We additionally infer that gas far from the midplane in more massive galaxies has the highest temperatures and steepest radial temperature gradients based on their [N ii]/Hα and [O ii]/Hα ratios between the disk and the halo.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberA141
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume599
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2017

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© ESO, 2017.

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Science Foundation (NSF)1108911
Science and Technology Facilities CouncilST/N000668/1

    Keywords

    • Galaxies: ISM
    • Galaxies: abundances
    • Galaxies: evolution
    • Galaxies: halos
    • Galaxies: spiral
    • Techniques: imaging spectroscopy

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Astronomy and Astrophysics
    • Space and Planetary Science

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