Validating full-spectrum fitting with a synthetic integral-field spectroscopic observation of the Milky Way

Wang, Z, Sharma, S, Hayden, MR, Van Des Sande, J, Bland-Hawthorn, J, Vaughan, S, Martig, M ORCID: 0000-0001-5454-1492 and Pinna, F (2024) Validating full-spectrum fitting with a synthetic integral-field spectroscopic observation of the Milky Way. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 534 (2). pp. 1175-1204. ISSN 0035-8711

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Abstract

Ongoing deep integral-field spectroscopy (IFS) observations of disc galaxies provide opportunities for comparison with the Milky Way (MW) to understand galaxy evolution. However, such comparisons are marred by many challenges such as selection effects, differences in observations and methodology, and proper validation of full-spectrum fitting methods. In this study, we present a novel code GalCraft to address these challenges by generating mock IFS data cubes of the MW using simple stellar population models and a mock MW stellar catalogue derived from E-galaxia. We use the widely adopted full-spectrum fitting code ppxf to investigate the ability to recover kinematics and stellar populations for an edge-on mock MW IFS observation. We confirm that differences in kinematics, mean age,, and between thin and thick discs can be distinguished. However, the age distribution is overestimated in the ranges between and Gyr compared to the expected values. This is likely due to the age spacing and degeneracy of SSP templates. We find systematic offsets in the recovered kinematics due to insufficient spectral resolution and the variation of line-of-sight velocity distribution with age and. With future higher resolution and multi- simple stellar population templates, GalCraft will be useful to validate key signatures such as - distribution at different R and and potentially infer radial migration and kinematic heating efficiency to study detailed chemodynamical evolution of MW-like galaxies.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	5101 Astronomical Sciences; 51 Physical Sciences; 0201 Astronomical and Space Sciences; Astronomy & Astrophysics; 5101 Astronomical sciences; 5107 Particle and high energy physics; 5109 Space sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Divisions:	Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Date of acceptance:	12 September 2024
Date of first compliant Open Access:	1 June 2026
Date Deposited:	01 Jun 2026 15:03
Last Modified:	01 Jun 2026 15:03
DOI or ID number:	10.1093/mnras/stae2148
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/28698

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