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arXiv · 2306.14283

The Origin of Star Formation in Early-type Galaxies Inferred from Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy

Yun Hee Lee·Ho Seong Hwang·Narae Hwang·Jong Chul Lee·Ki-Beom Kim
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Abstract

We investigate the origin of star formation activity in early-type galaxies with current star formation using spatially resolved spectroscopic data from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at APO (MaNGA) in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). We first identify star-forming early-type galaxies from the SDSS sample, which are morphologically early-type but show current star formation activity in their optical spectra. We then construct comparison samples with different combinations of star formation activity and morphology, which include star-forming late-type galaxies, quiescent early-type galaxies and quiescent late-type galaxies. Our analysis of the optical spectra reveals that the star-forming early-type galaxies have two distinctive episodes of star formation, which is similar to late-type galaxies but different from quiescent early-type galaxies with a single star formation episode. Star-forming early-type galaxies have properties in common with star-forming late-type galaxies, which include stellar population, gas and dust content, mass and environment. However, the physical properties of star-forming early-type galaxies derived from spatially resolved spectroscopy differ from those of star-forming late-type galaxies in the sense that the gas in star-forming early-type galaxies is more concentrated than their stars, and is often kinematically misaligned with stars. The age gradient of star-forming early-type galaxies also differs from those of star-forming late-type galaxies. Our findings suggest that the current star formation in star-forming early-type galaxies has an external origin including galaxy mergers or accretion gas from the cosmic web.

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Yun Hee Lee, Ho Seong Hwang, Narae Hwang, Jong Chul Lee, Ki-Beom Kim. 2023-08-07. The Origin of Star Formation in Early-type Galaxies Inferred from Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy. https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357%2Face1ea

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