Spatially Resolved Spectroscopic Observations of a Possible E+A Progenitor SDSS J160241.00+521426.9

TL;DR

This study uses spatially resolved spectroscopy to analyze a potential E+A galaxy progenitor, revealing interaction-induced star formation and quenching patterns that advance understanding of galaxy evolution.

Contribution

First spatially resolved spectroscopic analysis of a possible E+A progenitor, providing insights into star formation and quenching processes during galaxy interactions.

Findings

Central region shows strong Balmer absorption indicating recent star formation quenching.

Emission-line region suggests ongoing or recent star formation offset from the center.

Galaxy and neighbor are a physical pair likely interacting.

Abstract

In order to investigate the evolution of E+A galaxies, we observed a galaxy SDSS J160241.00+521426.9, a possible E+A progenitor which shows both emission and strong Balmer absorptions, and its neighbor galaxy. We used the integral field spectroscopic mode of the Kyoto Tridimensional Spectrograph (Kyoto3DII), mounted on the University of Hawaii 88-inch telescope located on Mauna Kea, and the slit-spectroscopic mode of the Faint Object Camera and Spectrograph (FOCAS) on the Subaru Telescope. We found a strong Balmer absorption region in the center of the galaxy and an emission-line region located 2 kpc from the center, in the direction of its neighbor galaxy. The recession velocities of the galaxy and its neighbor galaxy differ only by 100 km s^-1, which suggests that they are a physical pair and would have been interacting. Comparing observed Lick indices of Balmer lines and color indices with those predicted from stellar population synthesis models, we find that a suddenly quenched star-formation scenario is plausible for the star-formation history of the central region. We consider that star formation started in the galaxy due to galaxy interactions and was quenched in the central region, whereas star formation in a region offset from the center still continues or has begun recently. This work is the first study of a possible E+A progenitor using spatially resolved spectroscopy.