The Massive Star Population in M101. II. Spatial Variations in the Recent Star Formation History

TL;DR

This study examines how the recent star formation history varies with radius in galaxy M101, revealing that younger stellar populations are more prevalent in the inner regions, influencing observed emission and supergiant ratios.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of spatial variations in star formation history and their effects on stellar population ratios in M101, incorporating metallicity and SFH effects.

Findings

Inner regions have higher fractions of young stars contributing to Hα emission.

Modeled blue to red supergiant ratios are sensitive to metallicity and SFH variations.

Discrepancies between modeled and observed ratios at small radii suggest complex local effects.

Abstract

We investigate the star formation history (SFH) as a function of radius in M101 using archival HST/ACS photometry. We derive the SFH from the resolved stellar populations in five 2' wide annuli. Binning the SFH into time frames corresponding to stellar populations traced by H$\alpha$, far ultraviolet (FUV), and near ultraviolet (NUV) emission, we find that the fraction of stellar populations young enough to contribute in H$\alpha$ is 15%-35% in the inner regions, compared to less than 5% in the outer regions. This provides a sufficient explanation for the lack of H$\alpha$ emission at large radii. We also model the blue to red supergiant ratio in our five annuli, examine the effects that a metallicity gradient and variable SFH have on the predicted ratios, and compare to the observed values. We find that the radial behavior of our modeled blue to red supergiant ratios is highly sensitive to both spatial variations in the SFH and metallicity. Incorporating the derived SFH into modeled ratios, we find that we are able to reproduce the observed values at large radii (low metallicity), but at small radii (high metallicity) the modeled and observed ratios are discrepant.