Do galaxy global relationships emerge from local ones? The SDSS IV MaNGA surface mass density–metallicity relation

2016/08/11 by Jorge K. Barrera-Ballesteros, J. K. Barrera-Ballesteros, Timothy M. Heckman +18 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy formation and evolution #Metallicity #Physics #Star formation #Stellar mass #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Universe #astro-ph.GA

paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stw1984

11 pages, 9 Figures. Published in MNRAS. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/doi/10.1093/mnras/stw1984

openalex publication_date 2016/08/11 · arxiv created 2016/09/06 · arxiv updated 2016/09/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

We present the stellar surface mass density versus gas metallicity (Σ*-Z) relation for more than 500 000 spatially resolved star-forming resolution elements (spaxels) from a sample of 653 disc galaxies included in the SDSS IV MaNGA survey. We find a tight relation between these local properties, with higher metallicities as the surface density increases. This relation extends over three orders of magnitude in the surface mass density and a factor of 4 in metallicity. We show that this local relationship can simultaneously reproduce two well-known properties of disc galaxies: their global mass–metallicity relationship and their radial metallicity gradients. We also find that the Σ*-Z relation is largely independent of the galaxy's total stellar mass and specific star formation rate (sSFR), except at low stellar mass and high sSFR. These results suggest that in the present-day universe local properties play a key role in determining the gas-phase metallicity in typical disc galaxies.

Citations

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Cited by

• The 13th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: First Spectroscopic Data from the SDSS-IV Survey Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory
• ALMaQUEST. IV. The ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar Formation (ALMaQUEST) Survey
• Local and Global Gas Metallicity versus Stellar Age Relation in MaNGA Galaxies
• The shape of oxygen abundance profiles explored with MUSE: evidence for widespread deviations from single gradients
• What Determines the Local Metallicity of Galaxies: Global Stellar Mass, Local Stellar Mass Surface Density, or Star Formation Rate?