Natacha Z. Dametto, Rogério Riffel, Luis Colina, Rogemar Riffel, Javier Piqueras López, Richard Davies, Leonard Burtscher, Roberto Menezes, Santiago Arribas, Miriani Pastoriza, Alvaro Labiano, Thaisa Storchi-Bergmann, Luis Dahmer-Hahn, Dinalva Sales. 2018. A SINFONI view of the nuclear activity and circum-nuclear star formation in NGC4303 (vol 461, pg 4192, 2016). Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 478, 4, 4641-4641 DOI: 10.1093/mnras/sty1560
We present a spatially resolved stellar population study of the inner ∼200\,pc radius of NGC4303 based on near-infrared integral field spectroscopy with SINFONI/VLT at a spatial resolution of 40-80pc and using the STARLIGHT code. We found the distribution of the stellar populations presents a spatial variation, suggesting an age stratification. Three main structures stand out. Two nuclear blobs, one composed by young stars (t ≤ 50Myr) and one with intermediate-age stars (50Myr < t ≤ 2Gyr) both shifted from the centre. The third one is an internal intermediate-age spiral arm-like structure, surrounding the blob of young stars. Our results indicate star formation has occurred through multiple bursts in this source. Furthermore, the youngest stellar populations (t ≲ 2Gyr) are distributed along a circumnuclear star-forming ring with r∼250pc. The ring displays star formation rates (SFRs) in the range of 0.002-0.14M⊙yr−1, favoring the `pearls-on-a-string’ scenario. The old underlying bulge stellar population component (t > 2Gyr) is distributed outside the two blob structures. For the nuclear region (inner ∼60pc radius) we derived a SFR of 0.43\,M⊙yr−1 and found no signatures of non-thermal featureless continuum and hot dust emission, supporting the scenario in which a LLAGN/LINER-like source is hidden in the centre of NGC4303. Thus, our results reveal a rather complex star formation history in NGC4303, with different stellar population components coexisting with a low efficiency accreting black hole in its centre.
