Spatially resolved properties of galaxies from CANDELS+MUSE: Radial extinction profile and insights on quenching

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution spectroscopic and imaging data to analyze the radial distribution of star formation, dust, and quenching processes within galaxies, revealing inside-out quenching patterns.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed spatially resolved analysis of SFR, sSFR, and dust attenuation profiles across a sample of 32 galaxies combining MUSE and HST data.

Findings

Radial dependence observed in stellar and nebular color excess profiles.

Median sSFR_Hα increases outward by 0.8 dex, indicating inside-out quenching.

Evidence supports inside-out star formation quenching scenario.

Abstract

Studying the internal processes of individual galaxies at kilo-parsec scales is crucial in enhancing our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution processes. In this work, we investigate the distribution of star formation rate (SFR), specific SFR (sSFR), and dust attenuation across individual galaxies for a sample of 32 galaxies selected from the MUSE-Wide Survey at 0.1 $< \textit{z} <$ 0.42 with a dynamic range in stellar masses between $10^{7.7}$ and $10^{10.3}$ M$_{\odot}$. We take advantage of the high spatial resolution of the MUSE integral-field spectrograph and measure reliable spatially resolved H$\alpha$ and H$\beta$ emission line maps for individual galaxies. We also derive resolved stellar mass, SFR and dust maps using pixel-by-pixel SED fitting on high resolution multi-band HST/ACS and HST/WFC3 data from the CANDELS survey. By combining these, we analyze the radial profile of various physical parameters across these galaxies. We observe a radial dependence in both stellar and nebular color excess profiles peaking at the inner regions of galaxies. We also find the color excess profiles to most strongly correlate with the integrated sSFRs of galaxies. The median sSFR$_{\mathrm{H}\alpha}$ radial profiles of galaxies in our sample show a 0.8 dex increase from the central regions outward. This increase compared to the almost flat median radial profile of sSFR$_{\mathrm{SED}}$, which traces longer timescales of star formation, is in favor of the inside-out quenching of star formation. We bring further evidence for this quenching scenario from the locus of different subregions of galaxies on the SFR-M$_{*}$ and sSFR-M$_{*}$ relations.