Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:08:10.530Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Star formation history and isophotal shapes of fossil central galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2007

Habib G. Khosroshahi  and
Louisa A. Nolan
Habib G. Khosroshahi
Affiliation:
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK email: habib@star.sr.bham.ac.uk
Louisa A. Nolan
Affiliation:
School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK email: habib@star.sr.bham.ac.uk
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We study the structure and stellar populations of the luminous elliptical galaxies dominating fossil groups and compare them with the brightest galaxies in ordinary groups. Despite being over-luminous, the fossil central galaxies do not show boxy stellar isophotes which are usually associated with luminous elliptical galaxies. Boxy isophotes, according to the numerical simulations, are produced in gas poor mergers. The isophotal shapes of the fossil central galaxies, therefore, suggest a gas rich merger for fossil central galaxies. Using a two-component spectral fitting, we show that the dominant stellar population of the fossil and non-fossil galaxies is old and the second population is either old or intermediate age. However, the second stellar component (recently-formed stars) in fossil central galaxies is significantly more metal poor than that in the brightest galaxies of non-fossil groups.

Keywords

galaxies: evolutiongalaxies: stellar contentgalaxies: structuregalaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 3 , Symposium S245: Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges , July 2007 , pp. 81 - 82
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

Khochfar, S. & Burkert, A., 2005, MNRAS, 359, 1379CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khosroshahi, H. G., et al. , 2004, MNRAS, 349, 527CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khosroshahi, H. G., et al. , 2006, MNRAS Letters, 372, 68CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khosroshahi, H. G., Ponman, T. J., & Jones, L. R., 2007, MNRAS, 377, 595CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khosroshahi, H. G. & Nolan, L. A., 2007, in preparationGoogle Scholar
Nolan, L. A., et al. , 2007, MNRAS, 375, 371CrossRefGoogle Scholar