Glance: A Comprehensive Framework for Galactic Archaeology

TL;DR

Glance is an automated, comprehensive pipeline integrating multiple techniques for analyzing galaxy structures and stellar populations, demonstrated on NGC 1566, revealing deviations from traditional disk models and aiding galaxy evolution studies.

Contribution

The paper introduces Glance, a novel, integrated pipeline that automates galactic archaeology analysis, combining various state-of-the-art methods for the first time.

Findings

Revealed that NGC 1566's stellar disk deviates from exponential models.

Demonstrated the pipeline's efficiency and versatility in analyzing integral-field spectroscopy data.

Challenged the universality of disk morphology assumptions.

Abstract

A central topic in extragalactic astronomy is understanding the formation and evolutionary histories of galaxies. These systems often comprise multiple structural components with distinct physical and dynamical properties, making it challenging to disentangle their individual contributions. Aiming at investigating the true structure of the inner stellar disk, we have developed a comprehensive pipeline for the chronochemical and dynamical analysis of galaxies (Glance: Galactic archaeoLogy via chronochemicAl & dyNamiCal modElling). The presented pipeline employs several state-of-the-art techniques by integrating them into a single, automated pipeline, enabling streamlined analysis of integral-field spectroscopy data, by allowing users to easily and directly extract valuable information on stellar populations, kinematics, dynamics, and gas properties. It automates multiple analysis techniques, including stellar population synthesis (Fado, Starlight, post-processing with RemoveYoung, kinematic extraction (pPXF, Bayes-LOSVD), and dynamical modelling (Dynamite). It handles tasks such as Galactic extinction correction, de-redshifting, Voronoi binning, and nebular continuum correction, while offering extensive customization options. Parallel processing significantly reduces computational time. When applied to MUSE data sampling the central region of NGC 1566, this methodology reveals that its stellar disk significantly deviates from the conventional exponential model, challenging the assumption of universality in disk morphology. In summary, this work presents a powerful, publicly available pipeline for conducting galactic archaeology, designed to advance our understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies.