The CALIFA survey across the Hubble sequence: How galaxies grow their bulges and disks

TL;DR

This study uses integral field spectroscopy from the CALIFA survey to analyze the radial stellar population properties of 300 nearby galaxies across the Hubble sequence, revealing how galaxy morphology and mass influence their structure and evolution.

Contribution

It provides a detailed characterization of the radial stellar population properties across a wide range of galaxy types and masses, highlighting the role of morphology in galaxy quenching.

Findings

More massive galaxies are more compact, older, and metal-rich.

Radial trends in stellar properties are consistent across galaxy types.

Quenching correlates with morphology, not just mass.

Abstract

We characterize in detail the radial structure of the stellar population properties of 300 galaxies in the nearby universe, observed with integral field spectroscopy in the CALIFA survey. The sample covers a wide range of Hubble types, from spheroidal to spiral galaxies, ranging in stellar masses from $M_\star \sim 10^9$ to $7 \times 10^{11}$ $M_\odot$. We derive the stellar mass surface density ($\mu_\star$), light-weighted and mass-weighted ages ($\langle {\rm log}\,age\rangle _L$, $\langle {\rm log}\,age\rangle _M$), and mass-weighted metallicity ($\langle {\rm log}\,Z_\star\rangle _M$), applying the spectral synthesis technique. We study the mean trends with galaxy stellar mass, $M_\star$, and morphology (E, S0, Sa, Sb, Sbc, Sc and Sd). We confirm that more massive galaxies are more compact, older, more metal rich, and less reddened by dust. Additionally, we find that these trends are preserved spatially with the radial distance to the nucleus. Deviations from these relations appear correlated with Hubble type: earlier types are more compact, older, and more metal rich for a given M$_\star$, which evidences that quenching is related to morphology, but not driven by mass.