MUSE observations of the giant low surface brightness galaxy Malin 1: Numerous HII regions, star formation rate, metallicity, and dust attenuation

Abstract

Giant low-surface brightness (GLSB) galaxies are an extreme class of objects with very faint and extended gas-rich disks. Malin 1 is the largest GLSB galaxy known to date, but its formation is still poorly understood. We use VLT/MUSE IFU spectroscopic observations of Malin 1 to reveal, for the first time, the presence of H$\alpha$ emission distributed across numerous regions along its disk, up to radial distances of $\sim$100 kpc. We made an estimate of the dust attenuation using the Balmer decrement and found that Malin 1 has a mean H$\alpha$ attenuation of 0.36 mag. We observe a steep decline in the star formation rate surface density (${\Sigma }_{\mathrm{SFR}}$) within the inner 20 kpc, followed by a shallow decline in the extended disk. Similarly, the gas phase metallicity we estimated shows a steep gradient in the inner 20 kpc, followed by a flattening of the metallicity in the extended disk with a relatively high value of $\sim$0.6 $Z_{\odot }$. We found that the normalized abundance gradient of the inner disk is similar to values found in normal galaxies but with an extreme value in the extended disk. A comparison of the star formation rate surface density and gas surface density shows that, unlike normal disk galaxies or other LSBs, Malin 1 exhibits a very low star formation efficiency. Owing to the detection of emission lines over a large part of the disk of Malin 1, this work sheds light on the star formation processes in this unique galaxy, highlighting its extended star-forming disk, dust attenuation, almost flat metallicity distribution in the outer disk, and exceptionally low star-formation efficiency. Our findings contribute to a more detailed understanding of the formation of the giant disk of Malin 1 and also constrain possible proposed scenarios on the nature of GLSB galaxies in general.

12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in A&A

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