Deriving the intrinsic properties of M51 with radiative transfer models
arXiv:2310.03460 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stad2676
Abstract
A quantitative derivation of the intrinsic properties of galaxies related to their fundamental building blocks, gas, dust and stars is essential for our understanding of galaxy evolution. A fully self-consistent derivation of these properties can be achieved with radiative transfer (RT) methods that are constrained by panchromatic imaging observations. Here we present an axi-symmetric RT model of the UV-optical-FIR/submm spectral and spatial energy distribution of the face-on spiral galaxy M51. The model reproduces reasonably well the azimuthally averaged radial profiles derived from the imaging data available for this galaxy, from GALEX, SDSS, 2MASS, Spitzer and Herschel. We model the galaxy with three distinct morphological components: a bulge, an inner disc and a main disc. We derive the length parameters of the stellar emissivity and of the dust distribution. We also derive the intrinsic global and spatially resolved parameters of M51. We find a faint \lq\lq outer disc\rq\rq\ bridging M51 with its companion galaxy M51b. Finally, we present and discuss an alternative model, with dust properties that change within the galaxy.
22 pages, 14 figures; accepted in MNRAS for publication, Sept 7 2023
References in corpus (23)
- The 2.5 m Telescope of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
- Infrared Emission from Interstellar Dust. IV. The Silicate-Graphite-PAH Model in the Post-Spitzer Era
- The GALEX Ultraviolet Atlas of Nearby Galaxies
- The evolution of amorphous hydrocarbons in the ISM: dust modelling from a new vantage point
- A radiation transfer model for the Milky-Way: I. Radiation fields and application to High Energy Astrophysics
- Kinematics of Spiral Arm Streaming in M51
- Geometrically Derived Timescales for Star Formation in Spiral Galaxies
- Dust variations in the diffuse interstellar medium: constraints on Milky Way dust from Planck-HFI observations
- Dust Extinction and Emission in a Clumpy Galactic Disk. An Application of the Radiative Transfer Code TRADING
- High-resolution, 3D radiative transfer modeling : I. The grand-design spiral galaxy M51
- A hidden reservoir of Fe/FeS in interstellar silicates?
- Modelling the spectral energy distribution of galaxies. IV Correcting apparent disk scalelengths and central surface brightnesses for the effect of dust at optical and near-infrared wavelengths
- The Herschel Exploitation of Local Galaxy Andromeda (HELGA) VII: A SKIRT radiative transfer model and insights on dust heating
- A self-consistent model of Galactic stellar and dust infrared emission and the abundance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
- PAH Strength and the Interstellar Radiation Field around the Massive Young Cluster NGC3603
- Revealing the dust attenuation properties on resolved scales in NGC628 with SWIFT UVOT data
- High-Resolution Radiative Transfer Modelling of M33
- High-resolution, 3D radiative transfer modelling III. The DustPedia barred galaxies
- The Infrared Luminosity of Galaxy Clusters
- High-resolution, 3D radiative transfer modelling. II. The early-type spiral galaxy M81
- The problem of dust attenuation in photometric decomposition of edge-on galaxies and possible solutions
- The initial mass function of stars and the star-formation rates of galaxies
- Ray-tracing 3D dust radiative transfer with DART-Ray: code upgrade and public release