The Milky Way-like radial structure in nearby galaxies

@misc{zhao2026milky,
  title = {{The Milky Way-like radial structure in nearby galaxies}},
  author = {Yuze Zhao and Jianhui Lian and Zheng Zheng and Cuihuan Li and Jie Song and Tao Wang and Zhenkang Tang and Dezi Liu and Xiangkun Liu and Yuan Fang and Guowang Du and Jinghua Zhang and Xufeng Zhu and Xiaowei Liu and Xinlei Chen and Yu Pan and Xingzhu Zou and Ye-Hao Cheng and Shuai Xie},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = nov,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.07338},
  eprint = {2611.07338},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07338},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - The Milky Way-like radial structure in nearby galaxies
AU  - Yuze Zhao
AU  - Jianhui Lian
AU  - Zheng Zheng
AU  - Cuihuan Li
AU  - Jie Song
AU  - Tao Wang
AU  - Zhenkang Tang
AU  - Dezi Liu
AU  - Xiangkun Liu
AU  - Yuan Fang
AU  - Guowang Du
AU  - Jinghua Zhang
AU  - Xufeng Zhu
AU  - Xiaowei Liu
AU  - Xinlei Chen
AU  - Yu Pan
AU  - Xingzhu Zou
AU  - Ye-Hao Cheng
AU  - Shuai Xie
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/11/05
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.07338
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.07338
AB  - The Milky Way exhibits a distinctive plateau in its inner surface brightness profile around one effective radius, challenging the traditional view of a purely exponential disk. To explore the origin of this feature, we identify 65 nearby galaxies (<50 Mpc) with similar plateau structures and analyze their multi-band surface brightness and color profiles using SDSS, DESI, 2MASS, and Mephisto data. Of the 65 galaxies with Milky Way-like plateaus, 42 have bar classifications (25 barred, 17 non-barred). Barred galaxies show radial color variations more consistent with stellar population ageing, while non-barred galaxies align more with the dust reddening direction, suggesting dust attenuation contributes to plateau formation in non-barred systems. The broad range of color gradients among barred galaxies suggests bars influence plateaus through multiple pathways, including stellar population variations and dynamical stellar-mass redistribution. Environment may also contribute: both barred and non-barred galaxies tend to reside in denser environments than a comparison sample without plateaus. The low occurrence rate (∼3.6\%) may indicate that plateau structures mark a relatively uncommon evolutionary stage. The Milky Way, with both strong stellar population dependence and a persistent stellar mass profile feature, may represent an intermediate case where both stellar population variations and dynamical processes associated with the bar shape its plateau.
ER  -