Unveiling Chemical Structures in Edge-On Disk Galaxies

The chemistry of galaxies encodes critical information about their star formation and evolutionary history. With the Milky Way consisting of distinct chemical and structural components, a key challenge lies in disentangling the relative contributions of in-situ star formation and ex-situ processes in shaping galactic disks. To address this, spatially resolved studies of the chemical and structural components of external galaxies are required. Using the VLT MUSE instrument, we investigate how stellar population properties vary with height above the galactic plane in external edge-on galaxies. In this talk, I will present age, metallicity, and alpha abundance maps for a subset of GECKOS galaxies, derived using two different methods. Specifically, we test the derived mean stellar population parameters from line strength versus full spectrum fitting. This is particularly important for edge-on galaxies with significant amounts of dust and star formation. I will further compare the results from both methods with predictions from a chemodynamic Milky Way model. Our research, combined with recent results from other highly resolved spectroscopic studies of nearby galaxies, will provide a more complete picture of how stellar populations shape the structural and chemical evolution of disk galaxies.