943 research outputs found
Stellar Metallicity Gradients in SDSS galaxies
We infer stellar metallicity and abundance ratio gradients for a sample of
red galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Main galaxy sample. Because
this sample does not have multiple spectra at various radii in a single galaxy,
we measure these gradients statistically. We separate galaxies into stellar
mass bins, stack their spectra in redshift bins, and calculate the measured
absorption line indices in projected annuli by differencing spectra in
neighboring redshift bins. After determining the line indices, we use stellar
population modeling from the EZ\_Ages software to calculate ages,
metallicities, and abundance ratios within each annulus. Our data covers the
central regions of these galaxies, out to slightly higher than . We
find detectable gradients in metallicity and relatively shallow gradients in
abundance ratios, similar to results found for direct measurements of
individual galaxies. The gradients are only weakly dependent on stellar mass,
and this dependence is well-correlated with the change of with mass.
Based on this data, we report mean equivalent widths, metallicities, and
abundance ratios as a function of mass and velocity dispersion for SDSS
early-type galaxies, for fixed apertures of 2.5 kpc and of 0.5 .Comment: 19 pages; 8 tables, 12 figures. Submitted to ApJ for publicatio
Galaxies in SDSS and DEEP2: a quiet life on the blue sequence?
In the six billion years between redshifts z=1 and z=0.1, galaxies change due
to the aging of their stellar populations, the formation of new stars, and
mergers with other galaxies. Here I explore the relative importance of these
various effects, finding that while mergers are likely to be important for the
red galaxy sequence they are unlikely to affect more than 10% of the blue
galaxy sequence. I compare the galaxy population at redshift z=0.1 from the
Sloan Digital Sky Survey to that at z=1 from the Deep Extragalactic
Evolutionary Probe 2. Galaxies are bluer at z=1: the blue sequence by about 0.3
mag and the red sequence by about 0.1 mag, in redshift z=0.1 (u-g) color. I
evaluate the change in color and in the luminosity functions of the two
sequences using some simplistic stellar population synthesis models. These
models indicate that the luminous end of the red sequence fades less than
passive evolution allows by about 0.2 mag. Due to a lack of luminous blue
progenitors, ``dry'' mergers betweeen red galaxies then must create the
luminous red population at z=0.1, if stellar population models are correct. The
blue sequence colors and luminosity function are consistent with a reduction in
the star-formation rate since redshift z=1 by a factor of about three, with no
change in the number density to within 10%. These results restrict the number
of blue galaxies that can fall onto the red sequence by any process, and in
particular suggest that if mergers are catastrophic events they must be rare
for blue galaxies.Comment: submitted to ApJ, summary and viewgraphs available at
http://cosmo.nyu.edu/blanton/deep2sdss
Inside-out growth or inside-out quenching? clues from colour gradients of local galaxies
We constrain the spatial gradient of star formation history within galaxies
using the colour gradients in NUV-u and u-i for a local spatially-resolved
galaxy sample. By splitting each galaxy into an inner and an outer part, we
find that most galaxies show negative gradients in these two colours. We first
rule out dust extinction gradient and metallicity gradient as the dominant
source for the colour gradient. Then using stellar population models, we
explore variations in star formation history to explain the colour gradients.
As shown by our earlier work, a two-phase SFH consisting of an early secular
evolution (growth) phase and a subsequent rapid evolution (quenching) phase is
necessary to explain the observed colour distributions among galaxies. We
explore two different inside-out growth models and two different inside-out
quenching models by varying parameters of the SFH between inner and outer
regions of galaxies. Two of the models can explain the observed range of colour
gradients in NUV-u and u-i colours. We further distinguish them using an
additional constraint provided by the u-i colour gradient distribution, under
the assumption of constant galaxy formation rate and a common SFH followed by
most galaxies. We find the best model is an inside-out growth model in which
the inner region has a shorter e-folding time scale in the growth phase than
the outer region. More spatially resolved ultraviolet (UV) observations are
needed to improve the significance of the result.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Improved background subtraction for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey images
We describe a procedure for background subtracting Sloan Digital Sky Survey
(SDSS) imaging that improves the resulting detection and photometry of large
galaxies on the sky. Within each SDSS drift scan run, we mask out detected
sources and then fit a smooth function to the variation of the sky background.
This procedure has been applied to all SDSS-III Data Release 8 images, and the
results are available as part of that data set. We have tested the effect of
our background subtraction on the photometry of large galaxies by inserting
fake galaxies into the raw pixels, reanalyzing the data, and measuring them
after background subtraction. Our technique results in no size-dependent bias
in galaxy fluxes up to half-light radii of 100 arcsec; in contrast, for
galaxies of that size the standard SDSS photometric catalog underestimates
fluxes by about 1.5 mag. Our results represent a substantial improvement over
the standard SDSS catalog results and should form the basis of any analysis of
nearby galaxies using the SDSS imaging data.Comment: accepted by the Astronomical Journa
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