Line-of-sight velocity distribution corrections for Lick/IDS indices of early-type galaxies

We investigate line-of-sight velocity distribution (LOSVD) corrections for absorption line-strength indices of early-type galaxies in the Lick/IDS system. This system is often used to estimate basic stellar population parameters such as luminosity weighted ages and metallicities. Using single stellar population model spectral energy distributions by Vazdekis (1999) we find that the LOSVD corrections are largely insensitive to changes in the stellar populations for old galaxies (age >3 Gyr). Only the Lick/IDS Balmer series indices show an appreciable effect, which is on the order of the correction itself. Furthermore, we investigate the sensitivity of the LOSVD corrections to non-Gaussian LOSVDs. In this case the LOSVD can be described by a Gauss-Hermite series and it is shown that typical values of h_3 and h_4 observed in early-type galaxies can lead to significant modifications of the LOSVD corrections and thus to changes in the derived luminosity weighted ages and metallicities. A new, simple parameterisation for the LOSVD corrections, taking into account the h_3 and h_4 terms, is proposed and calibrations given for a subset of the Lick/IDS indices and two additional indices applicable to old (>3 Gyr) stellar populations.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, accepted by A&

Central K-band kinematics and line strength maps of NGC 1399

In this paper we present for the first time high spatial resolution K-band maps of the central kinematical and near-infrared spectral properties of the giant cD galaxy in the Fornax cluster, NGC 1399. We confirm the presence of a central velocity dispersion dip within radius < 0.2" seen in previous long-slit studies. Our velocity dispersion maps give evidence for a non-symmetric structure in this central area by showing three sigma peaks to the north-east, south-east and west of the galaxy centre. Additionally we measure near-IR line strength indices at unprecedented spatial resolution in NGC 1399. The most important features we observe in our 2-dimensional line strength maps are drops in Na I and CO(2-0) line strength in the nuclear region of the galaxy, coinciding spatially with the drop in sigma. The observed line strength and velocity dispersion changes suggest a scenario where the centre of NGC 1399 harbours a dynamically cold subsystem with a distinct stellar population.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy of the E+A Galaxies in the z=0.32 Cluster AC114

We present spatially resolved intermediate resolution spectroscopy of a sample of twelve E+A galaxies in the z=0.32 rich galaxy cluster AC 114, obtained with the FLAMES multi-integral field unit system on the European Southern Observatory's VLT. Previous integrated spectroscopy of all these galaxies by Couch & Sharples (1987) had shown them to have strong Balmer line absorption and an absence of [OII 3727] emission -- the defining characteristics of the``E+A'' spectral signature, indicative of an abrupt halt to a recent episode of quite vigorous star formation. We have used our spectral data to determine the radial variation in the strength of Hdelta absorption in these galaxies and hence map out the distribution of this recently formed stellar population. Such information provides important clues as to what physical event might have been responsible for this quite dramatic change in star formation activity in these galaxies' recent past. We find a diversity of behaviour amongst these galaxies in terms of the radial variation in Hdelta absorption: Four galaxies show little Hdelta absorption across their entire extent; it would appear they were misidentified as E+A galaxies in the earlier integrated spectroscopic studies. The remainder show strong Hdelta absorption, with a gradient that is either negative (Hdelta equivalent width decreasing with radius), flat, or positive. By comparing with numerical simulations we suggest that the first of these different types of radial behaviour provides evidence for a merger/interaction origin, whereas the latter two types of behaviour are more consistent with the truncation of star formation in normal disk galaxies. It would seem therefore that more than one physical mechanism is responsible for E+A formation in the same environment.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, accepted MNRA

KMOS view of the Galactic Centre - II. Metallicity distribution of late-type stars

Knowing the metallicity distribution of stars in the Galactic Centre has important implications for the formation history of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster. However, this distribution is not well known, and is currently based on a small sample of fewer than 100 stars. We obtained near-infrared K-band spectra of more than 700 late-type stars in the central 4 pc^2 of the Milky Way nuclear star cluster with the integral-field spectrograph KMOS (VLT). We analyse the medium-resolution spectra using a full-spectral fitting method employing the G\"ottingen Spectral library of synthetic PHOENIX spectra. The derived stellar metallicities range from metal-rich [M/H]>+0.3 dex to metal-poor [M/H]<-1.0 dex, with a fraction of 5.2(^{+6.0}+{-3.1}) per cent metal-poor ([M/H]<-0.5 dex) stars. The metal-poor stars are distributed over the entire observed field. The origin of metal-poor stars remains unclear. They could originate from infalling globular clusters. For the metal-rich stellar population ([M/H]>0 dex) a globular cluster origin can be ruled out. As there is only a very low fraction of metal-poor stars in the central 4 pc^2 of the Galactic Centre, we believe that our data can discard a scenario in which the Milky Way nuclear star cluster is purely formed from infalling globular clusters.Comment: 18 pages, 9 Figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

The Panchromatic High-Resolution Spectroscopic Survey of Local Group Star Clusters - I. General Data Reduction Procedures for the VLT/X-shooter UVB and VIS arm

Our dataset contains spectroscopic observations of 29 globular clusters in the Magellanic Clouds and the Milky Way performed with VLT/X-shooter. Here we present detailed data reduction procedures for the VLT/X-shooter UVB and VIS arm. These are not restricted to our particular dataset, but are generally applicable to different kinds of X-shooter data without major limitation on the astronomical object of interest. ESO's X-shooter pipeline (v1.5.0) performs well and reliably for the wavelength calibration and the associated rectification procedure, yet we find several weaknesses in the reduction cascade that are addressed with additional calibration steps, such as bad pixel interpolation, flat fielding, and slit illumination corrections. Furthermore, the instrumental PSF is analytically modeled and used to reconstruct flux losses at slit transit and for optimally extracting point sources. Regular observations of spectrophotometric standard stars allow us to detect instrumental variability, which needs to be understood if a reliable absolute flux calibration is desired. A cascade of additional custom calibration steps is presented that allows for an absolute flux calibration uncertainty of less than ten percent under virtually every observational setup provided that the signal-to-noise ratio is sufficiently high. The optimal extraction increases the signal-to-noise ratio typically by a factor of 1.5, while simultaneously correcting for resulting flux losses. The wavelength calibration is found to be accurate to an uncertainty level of approximately 0.02 Angstrom. We find that most of the X-shooter systematics can be reliably modeled and corrected for. This offers the possibility of comparing observations on different nights and with different telescope pointings and instrumental setups, thereby facilitating a robust statistical analysis of large datasets.Comment: 22 pages, 18 figures, Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics; V2 contains a minor change in the abstract. We note that we did not test X-shooter pipeline versions 2.0 or later. V3 contains an updated referenc

Mapping the inner regions of the polar disk galaxy NGC4650A with MUSE

[abridged] The polar disk galaxy NGC4650A was observed during the commissioning of the MUSE at the ESO VLT to obtain the first 2D map of the velocity and velocity dispersion for both stars and gas. The new MUSE data allow the analysis of the structure and kinematics towards the central regions of NGC4650A, where the two components co-exist. These regions were unexplored by the previous long-slit literature data available for this galaxy. The extended view of NGC~4650A given by the MUSE data is a galaxy made of two perpendicular disks that remain distinct and drive the kinematics right into the very centre of this object. In order to match this observed structure for NGC4650A, we constructed a multicomponent mass model made by the combined projection of two disks. By comparing the observations with the 2D kinematics derived from the model, we found that the modelled mass distribution in these two disks can, on average, account for the complex kinematics revealed by the MUSE data, also in the central regions of the galaxy where the two components coexist. This result is a strong constraint on the dynamics and formation history of this galaxy; it further supports the idea that polar disk galaxies like NGC~4650A were formed through the accretion of material that has different angular momentum.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysic

A New Approach to the Study of Stellar Populations in Early-Type Galaxies: K-band Spectral Indices and an Application to the Fornax Cluster

New measurements of K-band spectral features are presented for eleven early-type galaxies in the nearby Fornax galaxy cluster. Based on these measurements, the following conclusions have been reached: (1) in galaxies with no signatures of a young stellar component, the K-band Na I index is highly correlated with both the optical metallicity indicator [MgFe]' and central velocity dispersion; (2) in the same galaxies, the K-band Fe features saturate in galaxies with sigma > 150 km/s while Na I (and [MgFe]') continues to increase; (3) [Si/Fe] (and possibly [Na/Fe]) is larger in all observed Fornax galaxies than in Galactic open clusters with near-solar metallicity; (4) in various near-IR diagnostic diagrams, galaxies with signatures of a young stellar component (strong Hbeta, weak [MgFe]') are clearly separated from galaxies with purely old stellar populations; furthermore, this separation is consistent with the presence of an increased number of M-giant stars (most likely to be thermally pulsating AGB stars); (5) the near-IR diagrams discussed here seem as efficient for detecting putatively young stellar components in early-type galaxies as the more commonly used age/metallicity diagnostic plots using optical indices (e.g Hbeta vs. [MgFe]').Comment: 47 pages, 16 figures, ApJ accepte

VLT spectroscopy of NGC 3115 globular clusters

We present results derived from VLT-FORS2 spectra of 24 different globular clusters associated with the lenticular galaxy NGC 3115. A subsample of 17 globular clusters have sufficiently high signal-to-noise to allow precision measurements of absorption line-strengths. Comparing these indices to new stellar population models by Thomas et al. we determine ages, metallicities and element abundance ratios. For the first time these stellar population models explicitly take abundance ratio biases in the Lick/IDS stellar library into account. Our data are also compared with the Lick/IDS observations of Milky Way and M 31 globular clusters. Unpublished higher order Balmer lines (HgammaA ,F and HdeltaA ,F) from the Lick/IDS observations are given in the Appendix. Our best age estimates show that the observed clusters which sample the bimodal colour distribution of NGC 3115 are coeval within our observational errors (2-3 Gyr). Our best calibrated age/metallicity diagnostic diagram (Hbeta / vs. [MgFe]) indicates an absolute age of 11-12 Gyr consistent with the luminosity weighted age for the central part of NGC 3115. We confirm with our accurate line-strength measurements that the (V-I) colour is a good metallicity indicator within the probed metallicity range (-1.5 < [Fe/H] < 0.0). The abundance ratios for globular clusters in NGC 3115 give an inhomogeneous picture. We find a range from solar to super-solar ratios for both blue and red clusters. This is similar to the data for M 31 while the Milky Way seems to harbour clusters which are mainly consistent with [alpha / Fe] =~ 0.3. From our accurate recession velocities we detect, independent of metallicity, clear rotation in the sample of globular clusters. In order to explain the metallicity and abundance ratio pattern, particularly the range in abundance ratios for the metal rich globular clusters in NGC 3115, we favour a formation picture with more than two distinct formation episodes. Based on observations collected at the European Southern Observatory, Cerro Paranal, Chile (ESO No. 66.B-0131)