636 research outputs found
The impact of alpha/Fe enhanced stellar evolutionary tracks on the ages of elliptical galaxies
We complement our study of alpha/Fe enhanced stellar population models of
Lick absorption indices (Thomas et al. 2003) by comparing two sets of alpha/Fe
enhanced models. In both models the impact on Lick indices due to alpha/Fe
enhancement is accounted for through a modification of the stellar absorption
line-strengths using the response functions of Tripicco & Bell (1995). One set
of models, however, uses solar-scaled, the other alpha/Fe enhanced stellar
evolutionary tracks. Since the alpha/Fe enhanced tracks are hotter than the
solar-scaled ones (Salasnich et al. 2000), the correspondent stellar population
models have slightly weaker metallic indices (i.e. Mgb, etc.) and stronger
Balmer line indices (Hbeta) (Maraston et al 2003). Here we explore
quantitatively the impact of this effect on the alpha/Fe ratios, metallicities
and ages that are derived for elliptical galaxies. We find that the modest
decrease of the metallic indices Mgb and balance each other, such that
fully consistent alpha/Fe ratios are derived for stellar systems using alpha/Fe
enhanced models with either solar-scaled or alpha/Fe enhanced stellar tracks.
The decrease of the metallic indices and the increase of Hbeta conspire in a
way that also consistent metallicities are obtained. The derived ages, instead,
are significantly different. The inclusion of alpha/Fe enhanced stellar tracks
leads to the derivation of ages as high as 30 Gyr for elliptical galaxies. For
the same objects, ages not older than 15 Gyr are obtained, if alpha/Fe enhanced
models using solar-scaled tracks are adopted. This may indicate that current
stellar evolutionary models overestimate the bluing of stellar evolutionary
tracks due to alpha/Fe enhanced chemical mixtures at super-solar metallicities.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted by A&
Line-strength indices and velocity dispersions for 148 early-type galaxies in different environments
We have derived high quality line-strength indices and velocity
dispersions for a sample of 148 early-type galaxies in different
environments. The wavelength region covered by the observations
( to 6600 Å) includes the Lick/IDS indices
H, Mg1, Mg2, Mgb, Fe5015, Fe5270, Fe5335, Fe5406,
Fe5709, Fe5782, NaD, TiO1 and TiO2. The data are intended to
address possible differences of the stellar populations of early-type
galaxies in low- and high-density environments. This paper describes
the sample properties, explains the data reduction and presents the
complete list of all the measurements. Most galaxies of the sample
(85%) had no previous measurements of any Lick/IDS indices and for
30% of the galaxies we present first-time determinations of their
velocity dispersions. Special care is taken to identify galaxies with
emission lines. We found that 62 per cent of the galaxies in the
sample have emission lines, as measured by the equivalent width of the
[OIII] 5007Å line, EW[OIII] > 0.3 Å
The nature of the red disk-like galaxies at high redshift: dust attenuation and intrinsically red stellar populations
We investigate which conditions of dust attenuation and stellar populations
allow models of dusty, continuously star-forming, bulge-less disk galaxies at
0.8<z<3.2 to meet the different colour selection criteria of high-z ``red''
galaxies (e.g. Rc-K>5.3, Ic-K>4, J-K>2.3). As a main novelty, we use stellar
population models that include the thermally pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch
(TP-AGB) phase of stellar evolution. The star formation rate of the models
declines exponentially as a function of time, the e-folding time being longer
than 3 Gyr. In addition, we use calculations of radiative transfer of the
stellar and scattered radiation through different dusty interstellar media in
order to explore the wide parameter space of dust attenuation. We find that
synthetic disks can exhibit red optical/near-infrared colours because of
reddening by dust, but only if they have been forming stars for at least about
1 Gyr. Extremely few models barely exhibit Rc-K>5.3, if the inclination i=90
deg and if the opacity 2*tauV>6. Hence, Rc-K-selected galaxies at 1<z<2 most
probably are either systems with an old, passively evolving bulge or
starbursts. Synthetic disks at 1<z<2 exhibit 4<Ic-K<4.8, if they are seen edge
on (i.e. at i about 90 deg) and if 2*tauV>0.5. This explains the large fraction
of observed, edge-on disk-like galaxies with Ks4. Finally,
models with 2<z<3.2 exhibit 2.3<J-K<3, with no bias towards i about 90 deg and
for a large range in opacity (e.g. 2*tauV>1 for i about 70 deg). In conclusion,
red disk-like galaxies at 0.8<z<3.2 may not necessarily be dustier than nearby
disk galaxies (with 0.5<2*tauV<2) and/or much older than about 1 Gyr. This
result is due both to a realistic description of dust attenuation and to the
emission contribution by TP-AGB stars... (Abridged)Comment: 16 pages, 8 ps figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The evolution of the color gradients of early-type cluster galaxies
We investigate the origin of color gradients in cluster early-type galaxies
to probe whether pure age or pure metallicity gradients can explain the
observed data in local and distant (z approx 0.4) samples. We measure the
surface brightness profiles of the 20 brightest early-type galaxies of
CL0949+44 (hereafter CL0949) at redshift z=0.35-0.38 from HST WF2 frames taken
in the filters F555W, F675W, F814W. We determine the color profiles (V-R)(r),
(V-I)(r), and (R-I)(r) as a function of the radial distance r in arcsec, and
fit logarithmic gradients in the range -0.2 to 0.1 mag per decade. These values
are similar to what is found locally for the colors (U-B), (U-V), (B-V) which
approximately match the (V-R), (V-I), (R-I) at redshift approx 0.4. We analyse
the results with up to date stellar population models. We find that passive
evolution of metallicity gradients (approx 0.2 dex per radial decade) provides
a consistent explanation of the local and distant galaxies' data. Invoking pure
age gradients (with fixed metallicity) to explain local color gradients
produces too steep gradients at redshifts z approx 0.4. Pure age gradients are
consistent with the data only if large present day ages (>=15 Gyr) are assumed
for the galaxy centers.Comment: 23 pages, 19 figures, Accepted for publication in A&
Modeling the color evolution of luminous red galaxies - improvements with empirical stellar spectra
Predicting the colors of Luminous Red Galaxies (LRGs) in the Sloan Digital
Sky Survey (SDSS) has been a long-standing problem. The g,r,i colors of LRGs
are inconsistent with stellar population models over the redshift range
0.1<z<0.7. The g-r colors in the models are on average redder than the data
while the r-i colors in the models are bluer towards low redshift. Beyond
redshift 0.4, the predicted r-i color becomes instead too red, while the
predicted g-r agrees with the data. We provide a solution to this problem,
through a combination of new astrophysics and a fundamental change to the
stellar population modeling. We find that the use of the empirical library of
Pickles (1998) instead of theoretical spectra modifies the predicted colors
exactly in the way suggested by the data. The reason is a lower flux in the
empirical libraries, with respect to the theoretical ones, in the wavelength
range 5500-6500 AA. The discrepancy increases with decreasing effective
temperature independently of gravity. This result has general implications for
a variety of studies from globular clusters to high-redshift galaxies. The
astrophysical part of our solution regards the composition of the stellar
populations of these massive Luminous Red Galaxies. We find that on top of the
previous effect one needs to consider a model in which ~3% of the stellar mass
is in old metal-poor stars. Other solutions such as substantial blue Horizontal
Branch at high metallicity or young stellar populations can be ruled out by the
data. Our new model provides a better fit to the g-r and r-i colors of LRGs and
gives new insight into the formation histories of these most massive galaxies.
Our model will also improve the k- and evolutionary corrections for LRGs which
are critical for fully exploiting present and future galaxy surveys.Comment: Submitted to ApJ Letters. High resolution version available at
http://www.maraston.eu/Maraston_etal_2008.pd
The Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS) - Number density evolution of massive field galaxies to z ~ 1.2 as derived from the K-band selected survey
We derive the number density evolution of massive field galaxies in the
redshift range 0.4 < z < 1.2 using the K-band selected field galaxy sample from
the Munich Near-IR Cluster Survey (MUNICS). We rely on spectroscopically
calibrated photometric redshifts to determine distances and absolute magnitudes
in the rest-frame K-band. To assign mass-to-light ratios, we use an approach
which maximizes the stellar mass for any K-band luminosity at any redshift. We
take the mass-to-light ratio, M/L_K, of a Simple Stellar Population (SSP) which
is as old as the universe at the galaxy's redshift as a likely upper limit.
This is the most extreme case of pure luminosity evolution and in a more
realistic model M/L_K will probably decrease faster with redshift due to
increased star formation. We compute the number density of galaxies more
massive than 2 10^10 h^-2 solar masses, 5 10^10 h^-2 solar masses, and 1 10^11
h^-2 solar masses, finding that the integrated stellar mass function is roughly
constant for the lowest mass limit and that it decreases with redshift by a
factor of roughly 3 and by a factor of roughly 6 for the two higher mass
limits, respectively. This finding is in qualitative agreement with models of
hierarchical galaxy formation, which predict that the number density of ~ M*
objects is fairly constant while it decreases faster for more massive systems
over the redshift range our data probe.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letter
The Mass Function of Field Galaxies at 0.4 < z < 1.2 Derived From the MUNICS K-Selected Sample
We derive the number density evolution of massive field galaxies in the
redshift range 0.4 < z < 1.2 using the K-band selected field galaxy sample from
the Munich Near-IR Cluster Survey (MUNICS). We rely on spectroscopically
calibrated photometric redshifts to determine distances and absolute magnitudes
in the rest-frame K-band. To assign mass-to-light ratios, we use two different
approaches. First, we use an approach which maximizes the stellar mass for any
K-band luminosity at any redshift. We take the mass-to-light ratio of a Simple
Stellar Population (SSP) which is as old as the universe at the galaxy's
redshift as a likely upper limit. Second, we assign each galaxy a mass-to-light
ratio by fitting the galaxy's colours against a grid of composite stellar
population models and taking their M/L. We compute the number density of
galaxies more massive than 2 x 10^10 h^-2 Msun, 5 x 10^10 h^-2 Msun, and 1 x
10^11 h^-2 Msun, finding that the integrated stellar mass function is roughly
constant for the lowest mass limit and that it decreases with redshift by a
factor of ~ 3 and by a factor of ~ 6 for the two higher mass limits,
respectively. This finding is in qualitative agreement with models of
hierarchical galaxy formation, which predict that the number density of ~ M*
objects is fairly constant while it decreases faster for more massive systems
over the redshift range our data probe.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, to appear in the proceedings of the ESO/USM
Workshop "The Mass of Galaxies at Low and High Redshift", Venice (Italy),
October 24-26, 200
Stellar population models at high spectral resolution
We present new, high-to-intermediate spectral resolution stellar population
models, based on four popular libraries of empirical stellar spectra, namely
Pickles, ELODIE, STELIB and MILES. These new models are the same as our
previous models, but with higher resolution and based on empirical stellar
spectra, while keeping other ingredients the same including the stellar
energetics, the atmospheric parameters and the treatment of the
Thermally-Pulsating Asymptotic Giant Branch and the Horizontal Branch
morphology. We further compute very high resolution (R=20,000) models based on
the theoretical stellar library MARCS which extends to the near-infrared. We
therefore provide merged high resolution stellar population models, extending
from ~1000 AA to 25,000 AA. We compare how these libraries perform in stellar
population models and highlight spectral regions where discrepancies are found.
We confirm our previous findings that the flux around the V-band is lower (in a
normalised sense) in models based on empirical libraries than in those based on
the BaSeL-Kurucz library, which results in a bluer B-V colour. Most noticeably
the theoretical library MARCS gives results fully consistent with the empirical
libraries. This same effect is also found in other models using MILES, namely
Vazdekis et al. and Conroy & Gunn, even though the latter authors reach the
opposite conclusion. The bluer predicted B-V colour (by 0.05 magnitudes in our
models) is in better agreement with both the colours of Luminous Red Galaxies
and globular cluster data. We test the models on their ability to reproduce,
through full spectral fitting, the ages and metallicities of galactic globular
clusters as derived from CMD fitting and find overall good agreement.
{Abridged}Comment: 30 pages, 36 figures, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society in pres
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