GASP and MaNGA surveys shed light on the enigma of the gas metallicity gradients in disk galaxies

TL;DR

This study combines GASP and MaNGA survey data to analyze gas metallicity gradients in disk galaxies, revealing their dependence on stellar mass, environment, and galaxy infall history, with implications for galaxy formation and evolution.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how gas metallicity gradients vary with stellar mass and environment, highlighting the role of local enrichment and environmental effects in disk galaxy evolution.

Findings

Metallicity profiles steepen with increasing stellar mass up to 10^10.3 M_sun.

Cluster galaxies have flatter metallicity profiles than field galaxies at the same mass.

Galaxies recently infallen into clusters show metallicity gradients similar to field galaxies.

Abstract

Making use of both MUSE observations of 85 galaxies from the survey GASP (GAs Stripping Phenomena in galaxies with MUSE) and a large sample from MaNGA (Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory survey) we investigate the distribution of gas metallicity gradients as a function of stellar mass, for local cluster and field galaxies. Overall, metallicity profiles steepen with increasing stellar mass up to $10^{10.3}\,{\rm M_\odot}$ and flatten out at higher masses. Combining the results from the metallicity profiles and the stellar mass surface density gradients, we propose that the observed steepening is a consequence of local metal enrichment due to in-situ star formation during the inside-out formation of disk galaxies. The metallicity gradient-stellar mass relation is characterized by a rather large scatter, especially for $10^{9.8}<{\rm M_\star/M_\odot}<10^{10.5}$, and we demonstrate that metallicity gradients anti-correlate with the galaxy gas fraction. Focusing on the galaxy environment, at any given stellar mass, cluster galaxies have systematically flatter metallicity profiles than their field counterparts. Many sub-populations coexist in clusters: galaxies with shallower metallicity profiles appear to have fallen into their present host halo sooner and have experienced the environmental effects for a longer time than cluster galaxies with steeper metallicity profiles. Recent galaxy infallers, like galaxies currently undergoing ram-pressure stripping, show metallicity gradients more similar to those of field galaxies, suggesting they have not felt the effect of the cluster yet.