The Circumnuclear Star-forming Activities along the Hubble Sequence

Abstract

In order to study the circumnuclear star-forming activity along the Hubble sequence, we cross-correlate the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 2 (SDSS DR2) with the Third Reference Catalog of Bright Galaxies (RC3) to derive a large sample of 1015 galaxies with both morphological and spectral information. Among these, 385 sources are classified as star-forming galaxies and the SDSS fibre covered the circumnuclear regions (0.2 $-$ 2.0 kpc). By using the spectral synthesis method to remove the contribution from the underlying old stellar population, we measure the emission lines fluxes accurately which are then used to estimate the star formation rates(SFRs). Our main findings are that: (1) Early-type spirals show much larger H$\alpha$ luminosities and hence higher SFRs, they also suffer more extinctions than late-type ones. The equivalent widths (EWs) of H$\alpha$ emission lines show the similar trend, however, the very late types (Sdm $\sim$ Irr) do have large fractions of high EWs. (2) We confirm that D$_n(4000)$ has strong correlation with the strengthes of metallic absorption lines (such as CN band, G band and Mg Ib). Both these lines and the Balmer absorption lines show interesting variations between Sbc to Sd type galaxies. (3) The bar structure tightly relates with the enhanced star forming activity, this effect is even more significant in the early-type spirals. But we should note that the bar structure is not a necessary or sufficient condition for galaxies to harbor circumnuclear star formations.