The EDGE-CALIFA Survey: Using Optical Extinction to Probe the Spatially-Resolved Distribution of Gas in Nearby Galaxies

Abstract

We present an empirical relation between the cold gas surface density (${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{gas}}$) and the optical extinction (${\mathrm{A}}_{\mathrm{V}}$) in a sample of 103 galaxies from the Extragalactic Database for Galaxy Evolution (EDGE) survey. This survey provides CARMA interferometric CO observations for 126 galaxies included in the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area (CALIFA) survey. The matched, spatially resolved nature of these data sets allows us to derive the ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{gas}}$-${\mathrm{A}}_{\mathrm{V}}$ relation on global, radial, and kpc (spaxel) scales. We determine ${\mathrm{A}}_{\mathrm{V}}$ from the Balmer decrement (H$\alpha$/H$\beta$). We find that the best fit for this relation is ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{gas}}({\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{p}{\mathrm{c}}^{-2})\sim 26\times {\mathrm{A}}_{\mathrm{V}}(\mathrm{mag})$, and that it does not depend on the spatial scale used for the fit. However, the scatter in the fits increases as we probe smaller spatial scales, reflecting the complex relative spatial distributions of stars, gas, and dust. We investigate the ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{gas}}$/ ${\mathrm{A}}_{\mathrm{V}}$ ratio on radial and spaxel scales as a function of $\mathrm{EW}(\mathrm{H}\alpha )$. We find that at larger values of $\mathrm{EW}(\mathrm{H}\alpha )$ (i.e., actively star-forming regions) this ratio tend to converge to the value expected for dust-star mixed geometries ($\sim$ 30 ${\mathrm{M}}_{\odot }\mathrm{p}{\mathrm{c}}^{-2}\mathrm{ma}{\mathrm{g}}^{-1}$). On radial scales, we do not find a significant relation between the ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{gas}}$/${\mathrm{A}}_{\mathrm{V}}$ ratio and the ionized gas metallicity. We contrast our estimates of ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{gas}}$ using ${\mathrm{A}}_{\mathrm{V}}$ with compilations in the literature of the gas fraction on global and radial scales as well as with well known scaling relations such as the radial star-formation law and the ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{gas}}$-${\Sigma }_{\ast }$ relation. These tests show that optical extinction is a reliable proxy for estimating ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{gas}}$ in the absence of direct sub/millimeter observations of the cold gas.

arXiv comment12 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to MNRAS

References in corpus (56)

• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• Star Formation in Galaxies Along the Hubble Sequence
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• The Global Schmidt Law in Star Forming Galaxies
• The Host Galaxies of AGN
• The CO-to-H2 Conversion Factor
• The Star Formation Efficiency in Nearby Galaxies: Measuring Where Gas Forms Stars Effectively
• The Star Formation Law in Nearby Galaxies on Sub-Kpc Scales
• Overview of the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey: Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory
• THINGS: The HI Nearby Galaxy Survey
• CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey: I. Survey presentation
• Galaxy Structure and Mode of Star Formation in the SFR-Mass Plane from z ~ 2.5 to z ~ 0.1
• The Dark Molecular Gas
• Molecular Gas and Star Formation in Nearby Disk Galaxies
• The Relation Between Optical Extinction and Hydrogen Column Density in the Galaxy
• Scattering by Interstellar Dust Grains: Optical and Ultraviolet
• The O3N2 and N2 abundance indicators revisited: improved calibrations based on CALIFA and Te-based literature data
• The Sydney-AAO Multi-object Integral field spectrograph (SAMI)
• Alternative diagnostic diagrams and the "forgotten" population of weak line galaxies in the SDSS
• COLD GASS, an IRAM legacy survey of molecular gas in massive galaxies: I. Relations between H2, HI, stellar content and structural properties
• The Star Formation Rate and Gas Surface Density Relation in the Milky Way: Implications for Extragalactic Studies
• PMAS, the Potsdam Multi-Aperture Spectrophotometer. I. Design, Manufacture, and Performance
• CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey: IV. Third Public data release
• On the Relationship Between Molecular Hydrogen and Carbon Monoxide Abundances in Molecular Clouds
• CALIFA: a diameter-selected sample for an integral field spectroscopy galaxy survey
• CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey. II. First public data release
• CALIFA, the Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area survey. III. Second public data release
• Molecular Hydrogen in the FUSE Translucent Lines of Sight: The Full Sample
• Constraints on star-formation driven galaxy winds from the mass-metallicity relation at z=0
• The EDGE-CALIFA Survey: Interferometric Observations of 126 Galaxies with CARMA
• Dust attenuation, bulge formation and inside-out cessation of star-formation in Star-Forming Main Sequence galaxies at z~2
• Diffuse ionized gas in galaxies across the Hubble sequence at the CALIFA resolution
• The Mass-Metallicity Relation revisited with CALIFA
• Molecular line intensities as measures of cloud masses - I. Sensitivity of CO emissions to physical parameter variations
• Mapping dust through emission and absorption in nearby galaxies
• Do galaxy global relationships emerge from local ones? The SDSS IV MaNGA surface mass density-metallicity relation
• The ALMaQUEST Survey: The molecular gas main sequence and the origin of the star forming main sequence
• PHIBSS: molecular gas, extinction, star formation and kinematics in the z=1.5 star forming galaxy EGS13011166
• Photodissociation of interstellar N2
• The EDGE-CALIFA Survey: Molecular and Ionized Gas Kinematics in Nearby Galaxies
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: What Shapes The Distribution Of Metals In Galaxies? Exploring The Roles Of The Local Gas Fraction And Escape Velocity
• The EDGE-CALIFA survey: Variations in the Molecular Gas Depletion Time in Local Galaxies
• Estimating gas masses and dust-to-gas ratios from optical spectroscopy
• Star Formation in the Local Universe from the CALIFA sample. I. Calibrating the SFR using IFS data
• The EDGE-CALIFA survey: validating stellar dynamical mass models with CO kinematics
• The EDGE-CALIFA survey: the influence of galactic rotation on the molecular depletion time across the Hubble sequence
• Pipe3D, a pipeline to analyze Integral Field Spectroscopy data: I. New fitting phylosophy of FIT3D
• The Far-Infrared, UV and Molecular Gas Relation in Galaxies up to z=2.5
• Towards understanding the relation between the gas and the attenuation in galaxies at kpc scales
• Extinction and Dust Geometry in M83 HII Regions: A Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 Study
• The Relationship between CO Emission and Visual Extinction Traced by Dust Emission in the Magellanic Clouds
• A new empirical method to estimate the molecular gas mass in galaxies
• The Parsec-Scale Relationship Between I_CO and A_V in Local Molecular Clouds
• Attenuation modified by DIG and dust as seen in M31
• X-ray timing analysis of Cyg X-3 using AstroSat/LAXPC: Detection of milli-hertz quasi-periodic oscillations during the flaring hard X-ray state
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Constraints on the Conditions for Star Formation in Galaxy Discs

Cited by in corpus (41)

• Spatially-Resolved Spectroscopic Properties of Low-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies
• The cold interstellar medium of galaxies in the Local Universe
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: pyPipe3D analysis release for 10,000 galaxies
• Galaxies hosting an AGN: a view from the CALIFA survey
• The ALMaQUEST Survey IX: The nature of the resolved star forming main sequence
• The EDGE-CALIFA Survey: Central molecular gas depletion in AGN host galaxies -- a smoking gun for quenching?
• The EDGE-CALIFA survey: The local and global relations between ${\Sigma }_{\ast }$ , ${\Sigma }_{SFR}$ and ${\Sigma }_{mol}$ that regulate star-formation
• ALMaQUEST -- IV. The ALMA-MaNGA QUEnching and STar formation (ALMaQUEST) Survey
• A panchromatic spatially resolved analysis of nearby galaxies -- II. The main sequence - gas relation at sub-kpc scale in grand-design spirals
• From global to spatially resolved in low-redshift galaxies
• The EDGE-CALIFA survey: exploring the role of the molecular gas on the galaxy star formation quenching
• EDGE-CALIFA survey: Self-regulation of Star formation at kpc scales
• Determining star-formation rates in Active Galactic Nuclei hosts via stellar population synthesis
• Mass-Metallicity and Star Formation Rate in Galaxies: a complex relation tuned to stellar age
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Variations in the N/O -- O/H relation bias metallicity gradient measurements
• A new estimator of resolved molecular gas in nearby galaxies
• SDSS-IV MANGA: A Star Formation -- Baryonic Mass Relation at Kpc Scales
• ALMaQUEST -- VII: Star Formation Scaling Relations of Green Valley Galaxies
• Enhanced Star Formation Efficiency in the Central Regions of Nearby Quasars Hosts
• Accurate Identification of Galaxy Mergers with Stellar Kinematics
• From haloes to galaxies -- II. The fundamental relations in star formation and quenching
• Stellar feedback in M83 as observed with MUSE -- I. Overview, an unprecedented view of the stellar and gas kinematics and evidence of outflowing gas
• Exploring the Impact of Galactic Interactions and Mergers on the Central Star Formation of APEX/EDGE-CALIFA Galaxies
• HII regions in CALIFA survey: II. The relation between their physical properties and galaxy evolution
• How well do local relations predict gas-phase metallicity gradients? Results from SDSS-IV MaNGA
• Local and global gas metallicity versus stellar age relation in MaNGA galaxies
• Which galaxy property is the best gauge of the oxygen abundance?
• Unravelling the Dust Attenuation Scaling Relations and their Evolution
• Cold gas mass measurements for the era of large optical spectroscopic surveys
• A quantitative demonstration that stellar feedback locally regulates galaxy growth
• Estimating Molecular Gas Content in Galaxies from PAH Emission
• The EDGE-CALIFA survey: Star formation relationships for galaxies at different stages of their evolution
• A high-resolution extinction mapping technique for face-on disc galaxies
• The local and global relations between ${\Sigma }_{\star }$ , ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{SFR}}$ and ${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{mol}}$ that regulate star-formation
• Relating spatially resolved optical attenuation, dust and gas in nearby galaxies
• An analytical model to kinematically identify thin discs in MaNGA galaxies
• MASCOT -- An ESO-ARO legacy survey of molecular gas in nearby SDSS-MaNGA galaxies: I. first data release, and global and resolved relations between H_2 and stellar content
• The CAVITY project. The spatially resolved SFR of galaxies in voids
• Nebular abundance gradient in the Cartwheel galaxy using MUSE data
• Galaxy evolution on resolved scales: ageing and quenching in CALIFA
• Spatially-resolved Evolution of Galaxies