Spatially-Resolved Spectroscopic Properties of Low-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies

Abstract

I review here the spatially-resolved spectroscopic properties of low-redshift star-forming galaxies (and their retired counter-parts), using results from the most recent Integral Field Spectroscopy galaxy surveys. First, I briefly summarise the global spectroscopic properties of these galaxies, discussing the main ionization processes, and the global relations described between the star-formation rates, oxygen abundances, and average properties of their stellar populations (age and metallicity) with the stellar mass. Second, I present the local distribution of the ionizing processes, down to kiloparsec scales, and I show how the global scaling relations found between integrated parameters (like the star-formation main sequence, mass-metallicity relation and Schmidt-Kennicutt law) present local/resolved counter-parts, with the global ones being just integrated/average versions of the local ones. I discuss the local/resolved star-formation and chemical enrichment histories and their implication on the inside-out growth of galaxies. Third, I present the radial distributions of the surface densities of the properties explored globally, and how they depend on the integrated galaxy properties. Finally, I summarise all these results and discuss what we have learned from them regarding the evolution of galaxies. Final version in Journal Page: https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-astro-012120-013326