The reliability of gas-phase metallicities immediately adjacent to non-star-forming spaxels in MaNGA

TL;DR

This study assesses biases in gas-phase metallicity measurements near non-star-forming regions in MaNGA, finding that certain calibrations are systematically offset, and recommends stricter diagnostics for cleaner metallicity estimates.

Contribution

It identifies and quantifies biases in metallicity calibrations near non-star-forming spaxels in MaNGA, and suggests improved diagnostic criteria for more accurate measurements.

Findings

Only [NII]/Hα based calibrations are affected by nearby non-SF spaxels.

Stricter BPT cuts significantly reduce the offset in metallicity measurements.

Approximately 1.3% of spaxels are adjacent to non-SF regions, impacting metallicity estimates.

Abstract

In this work, we use gas phase metallicities calculated from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point (MaNGA) Data Release 17 (DR17) to assess the extent of potential biases in spaxels which are spatially adjacent to spaxels identified as non-star forming (non-SF) on a BPT diagram. We identify a sample of $\sim21,000$ such spaxels with calculable metallicities from the full metallicity catalogue ($\sim$1.57 million), representing a small fraction ($\sim1.3$ per cent) of the full metallicity sample. $\sim$23 per cent of all galaxies with at least one spaxel with a calculable metallicity also contain at least one spaxel with a calculated metallicity adjacent to a non-SF spaxel, with a typical galaxy hosting 9 non-SF-adjacent spaxels. From our suite of 6 different metallicity calibrations, we find that only the metallicity calibrations based entirely on the [NII]$_{6584}$/H$\alpha$ ratio are affected, showing systematic offsets to higher metallicities by up to $\sim$0.04 dex if they are located adjacent to a non-SF flagged spaxel, relative to a radially matched control sample. The inclusion of additional diagnostic diagrams (based on [OI]$_{6300}$~\&/or [SII]$_{6717+6731}$) is insufficient to remove the observed offset in the [NII]$_{6584}$/H$\alpha$ based calibrations. Using a stricter diagnostic line on the BPT diagram removes $\sim$94 per cent of identified bordering spaxels with metallicities for all metallicity calibrations, and removes the residual offset to higher metallicity values seen in [NII]$_{6584}$/H$\alpha$ calibrations. If science cases demand an exceptionally clean metallicity sample, we recommend either a stricter BPT cut, and/or a non-[NII]$_{6584}$/H$\alpha$ based metallicity calibration.