New Constraints on the History of Star Formation of Elliptical Galaxies

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy

Scientific paper

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Scientific paper

Results of the analysis of high quality stacked spectra of SDSS red-sequence galaxies will be presented. New accurate stellar population synthesis models for Lick indices from 4000 to 5300 Angstroms are used to estimate not only the mean ages of stars in galaxies from the strengths of the Balmer lines in their integrated spectra, but also the age spread of those stars, thus posing stronger constraints on the histories of star formation in these galaxies. The new models can also be used to estimate the mean stellar abundances of iron, carbon, nitrogen, magnesium and calcium in these galaxies. In particular, their nitrogen abundances pose new constraints on the timescale for star formation in early-type galaxies. Evidence from stellar ages and abundances indicates that the bulk of the stars in early-type galaxies seems to have been formed during a brief period of star formation (< 1 Gyr) before z 1.2. However, small amounts of more recent star formation are required to match the data.

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