Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2003-01-30
Astron.J.125:1882,2003
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
38 pages, 16 figures. Accepted by AJ (scheduled for April 2003). This paper is part IV of a revised version of astro-ph/011034
Scientific paper
10.1086/367795
The colors and chemical abundances of early-type galaxies at redshifts z<0.3 are studied using a sample of nearly 9000 galaxies, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey using morphological and spectral criteria. In this sample, redder galaxies have larger velocity dispersions. Color also correlates with magnitude and size, but these correlations are entirely due to the L-sigma and R_o-sigma relations: the primary correlation is color-sigma. The red light in early-type galaxies is, on average, slightly more centrally concentrated than the blue. Because of these color gradients, the strength of the color--magnitude relation depends on whether or not the colors are defined using a fixed metric aperture. Chemical evolution and star formation histories of early-type galaxies are investigated using co-added spectra of similar objects. At fixed sigma, the population at z ~ 0.2 had weaker Mg_2 and stronger H_beta absorption compared to the population at z ~ 0. It was also bluer. Comparison of these colors and line-strengths, and their evolution, with single-burst stellar population models suggests a formation time of 9 Gyrs ago, consistent with a Fundamental Plane analysis of this sample.
Annis James
Bernardi Marco
Burles Scott
Finkbeiner Douglas Paul
Lupton Robert H.
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