Impact of Galaxy Mergers on Stellar Population Profiles of Early-type Galaxies

Abstract

We study the impact of galaxy mergers on stellar population profiles/gradients of early-type galaxies (ETGs) using ETGs at z < 0.055 in the Stripe 82 region of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and MaNGA integral field unit spectroscopic data. Tidal features around ETGs, which are detected from deep coadded images, are regarded as direct observational evidence for recent mergers. We find that ETGs with tidal features have less negative metallicity gradients and more positive age gradients than ETGs without tidal features at M star ≳ 1010.6 M ⊙. Moreover, when integrating all the resolved stellar populations, ETGs with tidal features have lower metallicities by ∼0.07 dex and younger ages by ∼1–2 Gyr than ETGs without tidal features. Analyzing star formation histories, we discover that the mass fraction of young stellar populations with age <5 Gyr is higher in the central regions of ETGs with tidal features than in the same regions of the counterparts without tidal features. Compared to normal ETGs, ETGs with tidal features have a slow metal-enrichment history in the early universe, but they have been accelerating the metal enrichment through recently formed stars over the last few billion years. Many of our results can be explained if the effects of recently occurred mergers are different from those in the early universe, which are more likely to be rich in gas.