Abundance ratios in ellipticals and galaxy formation

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

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Abundance, Chemical Evolution, Elliptical Galaxies, Galactic Evolution, Iron, Magnesium, Star Formation, Astronomical Models, Galactic Mass, Galactic Winds, Luminosity, Metallicity, Supernovae, Variability

Scientific paper

The evolution of iron and magnesium abundances in elliptical galaxies is discussed in the framework of a detailed model of chemical evolution, and compared to very recent data on iron and magnesium indices as deduced from stellar populations in giant ellipticals. It is shown that: (1) in order to explain the observed (Mg/Fe) greater than 0 in giant ellipticals these objects must have stopped forming stars on timescales shorter than several times 108 years (2) in order to reproduce the observed trend of (Mg/Fe) as a function of total galactic mass and luminosity some of the main assumptions in models with supernova driven winds have to be relaxed. In particular, to explain the increase of (Mg/Fe) with galactic mass one has to assume either that the efficiency of star formation is an increasing function of mass or that the initial mass function favors more massive stars in more massive galaxies, at variance with what is assumed in standard chemical evolution models. The possible implications of these two different choices in terms of galaxy formation processes are discussed.

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