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The Spatially-Resolved Star Formation History of the M31 Disk from Resolved Stellar Populations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2015

Alexia R. Lewis ,
Julianne J. Dalcanton ,
Andrew E. Dolphin ,
Daniel R. Weisz ,
Benjamin F. Williams  and
PHAT
Alexia R. Lewis
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 email: arlewis@astro.washington.edu
Julianne J. Dalcanton
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 email: arlewis@astro.washington.edu
Andrew E. Dolphin
Affiliation:
Raytheon Company, 1151 East Hermans Road, Tucson, AZ 85756
Daniel R. Weisz
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 email: arlewis@astro.washington.edu University of California Observatories/Lick Observatory, University of California, 1156 High St., Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Hubble Fellow
Benjamin F. Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 email: arlewis@astro.washington.edu
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Abstract

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The Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) is an HST multi-cycle treasury program that has mapped the resolved stellar populations of ∼1/3 of the disk of M31 from the UV through the near-IR. This data provides color and luminosity information for more than 150 million stars. Using stellar evolution models, we model the optical color-magnitude diagram to derive spatially-resolved recent star formation histories (SFHs) over large areas of M31 with 100 pc resolution. These include individual star-forming regions as well as quiescent portions of the disk. With these gridded SFHs, we create movies of star formation activity to study the evolution of individual star-forming events across the disk. We analyze the structure of star formation and examine the relation between star formation and gas throughout the disk and particularly in the 10-kpc star-forming ring. We find that the ring has been continuously forming stars for at least 500 Myr. As the only large disk galaxy that is close enough to obtain the photometry for this type of spatially-resolved SFH mapping, M31 plays an important role in our understanding of the evolution of an L* galaxy.

Keywords

galaxies: evolution - galaxies: individual (M31) - galaxies: spiral - galaxies: structure
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 10 , Issue S309: Galaxies in 3D across the Universe , July 2014 , pp. 57 - 60
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2015 

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