J-PLUS: Two-dimensional analysis of the stellar population in NGC 5473 and NGC 5485

Abstract

Context. The spatial variations of stellar population properties within a galaxy are intimately related to their formation process. Therefore, spatially resolved studies of galaxies are essential to uncover their formation and assembly. Although the arrival of integral field unit (IFU) surveys has brought a significant breakthrough in the field, recent techniques that combine photometric multifilter surveys with spectral fitting diagnostics have opened a new, relatively low-cost way to disentangle the stellar population of spatially resolved galaxies compared to IFU surveys. Aims. The Javalambre Photometric Local Universe Survey (J-PLUS) is a dedicated multifilter designed to observed ∼8500 deg2 of the northern sky using 12 narrowband, intermediate-band, and broadband filters in the optical range. In this study, we test the potential of the multifilter observation carried out with J-PLUS to investigate the properties of spatially resolved nearby galaxies. Methods. We present detailed 2D maps of stellar population properties, i.e., age, metallicity, extinction, and stellar mass surface density, for two early-type galaxies observed in the J-PLUS and CALIFA surveys. These galaxies are NGC 5473 and NGC 5485. Radial structures are also compared and luminosity- and mass-weighted profiles are derived. We use MUFFIT to process the J-PLUS photometric multifilter observations, and STARLIGHT and STECKMAP to analyze IFU CALIFA data. Results. We demonstrate the scientific potential of J-PLUS/MUFFIT to explore the spatially resolved stellar populations of local galaxies. We find significant discrepancies between the results from the various analysis methods. While radial stellar population gradients obtained with J-PLUS/MUFFIT and the IFU technique CALIFA/STECKMAP are more in agreement, radial stellar population gradients largely differ when CALIFA/STARLIGHT methodology is used. A comparison of the absolute values reveals the existence of intrinsic systematic differences. Age and metallicity radial profiles derived from J-PLUS/MUFFIT are very similar when luminosity- or mass-weighted properties are used, suggesting that the contribution of a younger component is small and the star formation history of these early-type galaxies are well represented by mainly an old single stellar population component. Conclusions. We present the potential of J-PLUS to explore the unresolved stellar populations of spatially extended local galaxies. A comparison between the three methodologies reveals some discrepancies suggesting that the specific characteristics of each method causes important differences. We conclude that the ages, metallicities, and extinction derived for individual galaxies not only depend on the chosen models but also depend on the method used. Future work is required to evaluate in detail the origin of these differences and to quantify the impact that different fitting routines have on the derived stellar population properties.