Aperture corrections for disk galaxy properties derived from the CALIFA survey. Balmer emission lines in spiral galaxies

Author(s)

J. Iglesias-Páramo, J. M. Vílchez, L. Galbany, S. F. Sánchez, F. F. Rosales-Ortega, D. Mast, R. García-Benito, B. Husemann, J. A. L. Aguerri, J. Alves, S. Bekeraité, J. Bland-Hawthorn, C. Catalán-Torrecilla, A. L. de Amorim, A. de Lorenzo-Cáceres, S. Ellis, J. Falcón-Barroso, H. Flores, E. Florido, A. Gallazzi, J. M. Gomes, R. M. González Delgado, T. Haines, J. D. Hernández-Fernández, C. Kehrig, A. R. López-Sánchez, M. Lyubenova, R. A. Marino, M. Mollá, A. Monreal-Ibero, A. Mourão, P. Papaderos, M. Rodrigues, P. Sánchez-Blázquez, K. Spekkens, V. Stanishev, G. van de Ven, C. J. Walcher, L. Wisotzki, S. Zibetti, B. Ziegler

Abstract

This work investigates the effect of the aperture size on derived galaxy

properties for which we have spatially-resolved optical spectra. We

focus on some indicators of star formation activity and dust attenuation

for spiral galaxies that have been widely used in previous work on

galaxy evolution. We investigated 104 spiral galaxies from the CALIFA

survey for which 2D spectroscopy with complete spatial coverage is

available. From the 3D cubes we derived growth curves of the most

conspicuous Balmer emission lines (Hα, Hβ) for circular

apertures of different radii centered at the galaxy's nucleus after

removing the underlying stellar continuum. We find that the Hα

flux (f(Hα)) growth curve follows a well-defined sequence with

aperture radius that shows a low dispersion around the median value.

From this analysis, we derived aperture corrections for galaxies in

different magnitude and redshift intervals. Once stellar absorption is

properly accounted for, the f(Hα)/f(Hβ) ratio growth curve

shows a smooth decline, pointing toward the absence of differential dust

attenuation as a function of radius. Aperture corrections as a function

of the radius are provided in the interval [0.3, 2.5]R50.

Finally, the Hα equivalent-width (EW(Hα)) growth curve

increases with the size of the aperture and shows a very high dispersion

for small apertures. This prevents us from using reliable aperture

corrections for this quantity. In addition, this result suggests that

separating star-forming and quiescent galaxies based on observed

EW(Hα) through small apertures will probably result in low

EW(Hα) star-forming galaxies begin classified as quiescent.

Organisation(s)

Department of Astrophysics

External organisation(s)

Macquarie University, Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán (CAHA), Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (CSIC), Instituto Superior Técnico, National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics (INAOE), Leibniz-Institut für Astrophysik Potsdam, Institute of Astrophysics of the Canary Islands, University of La Laguna, The University of Sydney, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Australian Astronomical Observatory, Université de recherche Paris Sciences et Lettres, Universidad de Granada, University of Copenhagen, INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Universidade do Porto, University of Missouri–Kansas City, Instituto Oceanográfico, Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas Medioambientales y Tecnológica, European Southern Observatory (Germany), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Royal Military College of Canada

Journal

Astronomy & Astrophysics

Volume

553

No. of pages

ISSN

0004-6361

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201321460

Publication date

05-2013

Peer reviewed

Yes

Austrian Fields of Science 2012

103004 Astrophysics, 103003 Astronomy

Keywords

Portal url

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/aperture-corrections-for-disk-galaxy-properties-derived-from-the-califa-survey-balmer-emission-lines-in-spiral-galaxies(a953c61d-7750-47ae-9dc4-25db70747725).html