PPAK Wide-field Integral Field Spectroscopy of NGC 628 - I. The largest spectroscopic mosaic on a single galaxy

We present a wide-field Integral Field Spectroscopy (IFS) survey on the nearby face-on Sbc galaxy NGC 628, comprising 11094 individual spectra, covering a nearly circular field-of-view of Ëœ6 arcmin in diameter, with a sampling of Ëœ2.7 arcsec per spectrum in the optical wavelength range (3700-7000 Ã…). This galaxy is part of the PPAK IFS Nearby Galaxies Survey (PINGS). To our knowledge, this is the widest spectroscopic survey ever made in a single nearby galaxy. A detailed flux calibration was applied, granting a spectrophotometric accuracy of Ëœ0.2 mag. The spectroscopic data were analysed both as a single integrated spectrum that characterizes the global properties of the galaxy and using each individual spectrum to determine the spatial variation of the stellar and ionized gas components. The spatial distribution of the luminosity-weighted ages and metallicities of the stellar populations was analysed. Using typical strong emission-line ratios we derived the integrated and 2D spatial distribution of the ionized gas, the dust content, star formation rate (SFR) and oxygen abundance. The age of the stellar populations shows a negative gradient from the inner (older) to the outer (younger) regions. We found an inversion of this gradient in the central Ëœ1 kpc region, where a somewhat younger stellar population is present within a ring at this radius. This structure is associated with a circumnuclear star-forming region at Ëœ500 pc, also found in similar spiral galaxies. From the study of the integrated and spatially resolved ionized gas, we found a moderate SFR of Ëœ2.4 M&sun; yr-1. The oxygen abundance shows a clear gradient of higher metallicity values from the inner part to the outer part of the galaxy, with a mean value of 12 + log(O/H) Ëœ 8.7. At some specific regions of the galaxy, the spatially resolved distribution of the physical properties shows some level of structure, suggesting real point-to-point variations within an individual H II region. Our results are consistent with an inside-out growth scheme, with stronger star formation at the outer regions, and with evolved stellar populations in the inner ones. Based on observations collected at the Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán (CAHA) at Calar Alto, operated jointly by the Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie and the Instituto de AstrofÃsica de AndalucÃa (CSIC)