The star formation history of NGC 2276: Comparison between SED modeling and hydrodynamical simulations

Abstract

Analyzing environmental effects in galaxy groups is pivotal for understanding how galaxies evolve in these moderate-density settings. The degree to which ram pressure versus tidal interactions drive the unusual morphologies and kinematics seen in group galaxies remains a subject of active debate. This study focuses on the nearby galaxy NGC 2276, which has the longest radio continuum tail in galactic groups. It is a member of the NGC 2300 group that possibly experiences both processes, and we aim to determine which has the greatest impact on its overall structure. We combined broadband images with synthetic narrow band filters around emission line maps from integral field spectrograph to construct spatially resolved spectral energy distributions (SED), which we modeled using the BAGPIPES software package to reconstruct kpc-scale star formation histories. These are compared with those derived from adaptive mesh refinement wind tunnel simulations of an NGC 2276-like system. We show that the spatial distribution of the oldest stellar populations ($>1.1$ Gyr) is highly symmetric compared to the youngest ones. This is the most compelling evidence so far pointing towards ram pressure being the only morphological disturber of this system, as it primarily affects the gaseous component. Simulated data show similar results, with older stellar populations being more symmetric. Our RPS-only model showed no significant differences in the morphology of the stellar populations compared to the RPS+tidal model with initial separation of 50 kpc.