Evidence for azimuthal variations of the oxygen abundance gradient
  tracing the spiral structure of the galaxy HCG91c
  Context. The distribution of elements in galaxies forms an important
diagnostic tool to characterize the system's formation and evolution. This tool
is however complex to use in practice, as galaxies are subject to a range of
simultaneous physical processes active from pc to kpc scales. This renders
observations of the full optical extent of galaxies down to sub-kpc scales
essential. Aims. Using the WiFeS integral field spectrograph, we previously
detected abrupt and localized variations in the gas-phase oxygen abundance of
the spiral galaxy HCG91c. Here, we follow-up on these observations to map
HCG91c's disk out to ~2Re at a resolution of 600pc, and characterize the
non-radial variations of the gas-phase oxygen abundance in the system. Methods.
We obtained deep MUSE observations of the target under ~0.6 arcsec seeing
conditions. We perform both a spaxel-based and aperture-based analysis of the
data to map the spatial variations of 12+log(O/H) across the disk of the
galaxy. Results. We confirm the presence of rapid variations of the oxygen
abundance across the entire extent of the galaxy previously detected with
WiFeS, for all azimuths and radii. The variations can be separated in two
categories: a) localized and associated with individual HII regions, and b)
extended over kpc scales, and occurring at the boundaries of the spiral
structures in the galaxy. Conclusions. Our MUSE observations suggest that the
enrichment of the interstellar medium in HGC91c has proceeded preferentially
along spiral structures, and less efficiently across them. Our dataset
highlights the importance of distinguishing individual star-forming regions
down to scales of a few 100pc when using integral field spectrographs to
spatially resolve the distribution of oxygen abundances in a given system, and
accurately characterize azimuthal variations and intrinsic scatter.
