SDSS-IV MaNGA: Understanding Ionized Gas Turbulence using Integral Field Spectroscopy of 4500 Star-Forming Disk Galaxies

TL;DR

This study uses MaNGA integral field spectroscopy data of over 4,500 star-forming galaxies to analyze ionized gas turbulence, revealing its correlation with star formation and disk dynamics, supporting feedback-driven turbulence models.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of ionized gas turbulence in galaxies, linking velocity dispersion to star formation activity and disk geometry, using extensive MaNGA data.

Findings

Velocity dispersion of HII regions increases with star formation rate.

Diffuse ionized gas shows a more rapid increase in velocity dispersion.

Turbulence in galactic disks is primarily driven by star formation feedback.

Abstract

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey MaNGA program has now obtained integral field spectroscopy for over 10,000 galaxies in the nearby universe. We use the final MaNGA data release DR17 to study the correlation between ionized gas velocity dispersion and galactic star formation rate, finding a tight correlation in which sigma_Ha from galactic HII regions increases significantly from ~ 18-30 km/s broadly in keeping with previous studies. In contrast, sigma_Ha from diffuse ionized gas (DIG) increases more rapidly from 20-60 km/s. Using the statistical power of MaNGA, we investigate these correlations in greater detail using multiple emission lines and determine that the observed correlation of sigma_Ha with local star formation rate surface density is driven primarily by the global relation of increasing velocity dispersion at higher total SFR, as are apparent correlations with stellar mass. Assuming HII region models consistent with our finding that sigma_[O III] < sigma_Ha < sigma_[O I], we estimate the velocity dispersion of the molecular gas in which individual HII regions are embedded, finding values sigma_Mol = 5-30 km/s consistent with ALMA observations in a similar mass range. Finally, we use variations in the relation with inclination and disk azimuthal angle to constrain the velocity dispersion ellipsoid of the ionized gas sigma_z/sigma_r = 0.84 +- 0.03 and sigma_phi/sigma_r = 0.91 +- 0.03, similar to that of young stars in the Galactic disk. Our results are most consistent with theoretical models in which turbulence in modern galactic disks is driven primarily by star formation feedback.