SDSS-IV MaNGA: global and local stellar population properties of elliptical galaxies and their assembly histories.

We study the spatially resolved properties of 333 elliptical galaxies with the MaNGA/SDSS-IV survey. The aim is to understand the fundamental processes of formation and quenching of elliptical galaxies. We used the DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys for accurate morphological classification. Based on integrated spectroscopic properties and colors, we classified galaxies into classical "red and dead", recently quenched, and blue star-forming ellipticals (CLEs, RQEs, and BSFs corresponding to 75%, 10%, and 4% of the sample, respectively). We inferred their stellar age and stellar metallicity gradients out to 1.5 effective radius, and reconstructed their global and radial histories of mass growth and star formation. We find the mass- and light-weighted age gradients of CLEs are nearly flat or mildly negative, with small differences between both ages. The respective metallicity gradients are negative, being flatter as less massive are the CLEs. The more massive CLEs assembled earlier and quenched faster than the less massive ones. The CLEs show a weak inside-out growth and a clear inside-out quenching. At masses < $10^{11}$ $M_{\bigodot}$, the age and $Z$ gradients of the RQEs and BSFs are flatter than those of the CLEs but with larger scatters. They show very weak inside-out growth and quenching, being the quenching slow and even not completed at $z\sim$ 0 for the BSFs. Instead, the massive RQEs show an outside-in quenching, and positive gradients in the light-weighted age and stellar metallicities. Our results are consistent with a scenario where the inner parts of CLEs formed by an early and coeval dissipative collapse with a consequent burst of star formation and further quenching, whereas the outer parts continued their assembly likely by dry mergers. We also discuss some evolutionary scenarios for the RQE and BSF galaxies that would agree with their generic results presented here.