A quantitative demonstration that stellar feedback locally regulates galaxy growth. Issue 1 (23rd September 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zaragoza-Cardiel, Javier; Fritz, Jacopo; Aretxaga, Itziar; Mayya, Yalia D; Rosa-González, Daniel; Beckman, John E; Bruzual, Gustavo; Charlot, Stephane
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 499:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 1172
• Page End: 1187
• Publication Date: 2020-09-23
• Subjects: galaxies: evolution -- galaxies: formation -- galaxies: star formation -- galaxies: stellar content; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/staa2906
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

ABSTRACT: We have applied stellar population synthesis to 500-pc-sized regions in a sample of 102 galaxy discs observed with the MUSE spectrograph. We derived the star formation history and analyse specifically the 'recent' ($20\, \rm {Myr}$ ) and 'past' ($570\, \rm {Myr}$ ) age bins. Using a star formation self-regulator model, we can derive local mass-loading factors, η for specific regions, and find that this factor depends on the local stellar mass surface density, Σ*, in agreement with the predictions form hydrodynamical simulations including supernova feedback. We integrate the local η –Σ* relation using the stellar mass surface density profiles from the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S4G) to derive global mass-loading factors, η G, as a function of stellar mass, M * . The η G – M * relation found is in very good agreement with hydrodynamical cosmological zoom-in galaxy simulations. The method developed here offers a powerful way of testing different implementations of stellar feedback, to check on how realistic are their predictions.