Ex-situ stellar mass fractions for MaNGA

However, accurately measuring the contribution of accretion to a galaxy's total stellar mass and its balance with in-situ star formation poses a persistent challenge, as it is neither directly observable nor easily inferred from observational properties. Here, we present, for the first time, theory-motivated predictions for the fraction of stellar mass originating from mergers in a statistically significant sample of nearby galaxies, using data from MaNGA.

Employing a robust machine learning model trained on mock MaNGA analogs (MaNGIA) in turn obtained from a cosmological simulation (TNG50), we unveil that in-situ stellar mass dominates almost across the entire stellar mass spectrum (10^9^M_{sun}_<M*<10^12^M_{sun}_). Only in more massive galaxies (M*>10^11^M_{sun}_) does accreted mass become a substantial contributor, reaching up to 35-40% of the total stellar mass. Notably, the ex-situ stellar mass in the nearby universe exhibits significant dependence on galaxy characteristics, with higher accreted fractions favored by elliptical, quenched galaxies and slow rotators, as well as galaxies at the center of more massive dark matter halos.