The PyCASSO database: Spatially resolved stellar population properties for CALIFA galaxies

TL;DR

This paper introduces a comprehensive, publicly available database of spatially resolved stellar population properties for CALIFA galaxies, enabling diverse astrophysical analyses and fostering transparency in galaxy research.

Contribution

It provides a new, extensive catalogue of stellar properties for CALIFA galaxies analyzed with spectral synthesis, including maps of stellar mass, age, metallicity, and kinematics.

Findings

Good agreement between star formation rates from stellar continuum and Hα emission.

Updated radial profiles of mass density and mass-metallicity relation.

Demonstrated applications for individual and statistical galaxy studies.

Abstract

The Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey, a pioneer in integral field spectroscopy legacy projects, has fostered many studies exploring the information encoded on the spatially resolved data on gaseous and stellar features in the optical range of galaxies. We describe a value-added catalogue of stellar population properties for CALIFA galaxies analysed with the spectral synthesis code STARLIGHT and processed with the PyCASSO platform. Our public data base (http://pycasso.ufsc.br/, mirror at http://pycasso.iaa.es/) comprises 445 galaxies from the CALIFA Data Release 3 with COMBO data. The catalogue provides maps for the stellar mass surface density, mean stellar ages and metallicities, stellar dust attenuation, star formation rates, and kinematics. Example applications both for individual galaxies and for statistical studies are presented to illustrate the power of this data set. We revisit and update a few of our own results on mass density radial profiles and on the local mass-metallicity relation. We also show how to employ the catalogue for new investigations, and show a pseudo Schmidt-Kennicutt relation entirely made with information extracted from the stellar continuum. Combinations to other databases are also illustrated. Among other results, we find a very good agreement between star formation rate surface densities derived from the stellar continuum and the $\mathrm{H}\alpha$ emission. This public catalogue joins the scientific community's effort towards transparency and reproducibility, and will be useful for researchers focusing on (or complementing their studies with) stellar properties of CALIFA galaxies.