Comparison of stellar populations in simulated and real post-starburst galaxies in MaNGA

TL;DR

This study compares simulated and real post-starburst galaxies using spectral indices from MaNGA data, revealing insights into their formation, star formation quenching, and radial gradient evolution, with implications for galaxy evolution models.

Contribution

It demonstrates that only specific merger configurations with black hole feedback produce observable post-starburst features and highlights the importance of stellar continuum methods for identifying PSBs.

Findings

Major mergers with certain orbits and feedback models produce PSBs.

Hα emission variability suggests PSB selection biases.

Radial spectral index gradients can estimate starburst age.

Abstract

Recent integral field spectroscopic (IFS) surveys have revealed radial gradients in the optical spectral indices of post-starburst galaxies, which can be used to constrain their formation histories. We study the spectral indices of post-processed mock IFS datacubes of binary merger simulations, carefully matched to the properties of the MaNGA IFS survey, with a variety of black hole feedback models, progenitor galaxies, orbits and mass ratios. Based on our simulation sample, we find that only major mergers on prograde-prograde or retrograde-prograde orbits in combination with a mechanical black hole feedback model can form galaxies with weak enough ongoing star formation, and therefore absent H$\alpha$ emission, to be selected by traditional PSB selection methods. We find strong fluctuations in nebular emission line strengths, even within the PSB phase, suggesting that H$\alpha$ selected PSBs are only a subsample of the underlying population. The global PSB population can be more robustly identified using stellar continuum-based approaches. The difficulty in reproducing the very young PSBs in simulations potentially indicates that new sub-resolution star formation recipes are required to properly model the process of star formation quenching. In our simulations, we find that the starburst peaks at the same time at all radii, but is stronger and more prolonged in the inner regions. This results in a strong time evolution in the radial gradients of the spectral indices which can be used to estimate the age of the starburst without reliance on detailed star formation histories from spectral synthesis models.