Characterizing the local relation between star formation rate and gas-phase metallicity in MaNGA spiral galaxies

Abstract

The role of gas accretion in galaxy evolution is still a matter of debate. The presence of inflows of metal-poor gas that trigger star formation bursts of low metallicity has been proposed as an explanation for the local anti-correlation between star formation rate (SFR) and gas-phase metallicity (${\mathrm{Z}}_{\mathrm{g}}$) found in the literature. In the present study, we show how the anti-correlation is also present as part of a diversified range of behaviours for a sample of more than 700 nearby spiral galaxies from the SDSS IV MaNGA survey. We have characterized the local relation between SFR and ${\mathrm{Z}}_{\mathrm{g}}$ after subtracting the azimuthally averaged radial profiles of both quantities. $60\%$ of the analyzed galaxies display a $\mathrm{SFR}-{\mathrm{Z}}_{\mathrm{g}}$ anti-correlation, with the remaining $40\%$ showing no correlation ($19\%$) or positive correlation ($21\%$). Applying a Random Forest machine-learning algorithm, we obtain that the slope of the correlation is mainly determined by the average gas-phase metallicity of the galaxy. Galaxy mass, $g-r$ colors, stellar age, and mass density seem to play a less significant role. This result is supported by the performed 2nd-order polynomial regression analysis. Thus, the local $\mathrm{SFR}-{\mathrm{Z}}_{\mathrm{g}}$ slope varies with the average metallicity, with the more metal-poor galaxies presenting the lowest slopes (i.e., the strongest $\mathrm{SFR}-{\mathrm{Z}}_{\mathrm{g}}$ anti-correlations), and reversing the relation for more metal-rich systems. Our results suggest that external gas accretion fuels star-formation in metal-poor galaxies, whereas in metal-rich systems the gas comes from previous star formation episodes.

22 pages, 11 figures. Accepted for publication in ApJ