Simultaneous spectroscopic and photometric analysis of galaxies with STARLIGHT: CALIFA $+$ GALEX

TL;DR

This paper introduces an enhanced spectral synthesis code, STARLIGHT, that combines optical spectra and UV photometry to better determine galaxy stellar populations, tested on CALIFA and GALEX data across diverse galaxy types.

Contribution

The new version of STARLIGHT effectively integrates UV data with optical spectra, improving stellar population analysis and degeneracy mitigation in galaxy studies.

Findings

The code matches UV data within errors without compromising optical fit quality.

Optical-only fits agree with optical+UV results for 90% of galaxies.

Adding UV data minimally affects stellar mass and dust estimates, but refines age and metallicity measurements.

Abstract

We present an extended version of the spectral synthesis code STARLIGHT designed to incorporate both $\lambda$-by-$\lambda$ spectra and photometric fluxes in the estimation of stellar population properties of galaxies. The code is tested with simulations and data for 260 galaxies culled from the CALIFA survey, spatially matching the 3700--7000 \AA\ optical datacubes to GALEX near and far UV images. The sample spans E--Sd galaxies with masses from $10^9$ to $10^{12} M_\odot$ and stellar populations all the way from star-forming to old, passive systems. Comparing results derived from purely optical fits with those which also consider the NUV and FUV data we find that: (1) The new code is capable of matching the input UV data within the errors while keeping the quality of the optical fit essentially unchanged. (2) Despite being unreliable predictors of the UV fluxes, purely optical fits yield stellar population properties which agree well with those obtained in optical+UV fits for nearly 90% of our sample. (3) The addition of UV constraints has little impact on properties such as stellar mass and dust optical depth. Mean stellar ages and metallicities also remain nearly the same for most galaxies, the exception being low-mass, late-type galaxies, which become older and less enriched due to rearrangements of their youngest populations. (4) The revised ages are better correlated with observables such as the 4000 \AA\ break index, and the $NUV - r$ and $u - r$ colours, an empirical indication that the addition of UV constraints helps mitigating the effects of age-metallicity-extinction degeneracies.