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The use of [Mg/Fe] to trace truncated star formation in elliptical galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2006

Ignacio G. de la Rosa ,
Reinaldo R. de Carvalho ,
Alexandre Vazdekis  and
Beatriz Barbuy
Ignacio G. de la Rosa
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain email: irosa@iac.es, vazdekis@iac.es Instituto Astronômico e Geofísico – USP, 04301-904 São Paulo, Brazil email: barbuy@astro.iag.usp.br
Reinaldo R. de Carvalho
Affiliation:
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE, DAS, São José dos Campos – SP – Brazil email: reinaldo@das.inpe.br
Alexandre Vazdekis
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain email: irosa@iac.es, vazdekis@iac.es
Beatriz Barbuy
Affiliation:
Instituto Astronômico e Geofísico – USP, 04301-904 São Paulo, Brazil email: barbuy@astro.iag.usp.br
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Abstract

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The present study tries to identify the mechanism responsible for the hostility to star formation (SF) found in galaxies of dense environments. Among the several candidate mechanisms, the gas-rich merger of galaxies stands as a plausible option since the realisation that the AGN-feedback, which follows the merger, can deplete the gas and truncate the SF of the resulting spheroid. Our strategy is to look for traces of SF truncation in the elliptical galaxies of Hickson compact groups (HCGs), because these are the ideal environments for mergers to occur. The stellar populations of 22 elliptical galaxies in HCGs and 12 in the field are compared using three different SSP models and two different emission correction procedures. Along the study, an extensive use of the [Mg/Fe] abundance ratio is made, because it contains useful information on the timescale of the SF history of the galaxies. Systematic differences of [Mg/Fe] and [Z/H] between both galaxy subsamples (field and HCGs) suggest that SF truncation events have affected the intermediate-mass galaxies of the HCGs. Our interpretation is that when a field galaxy enters the dense HCG environment it merges with another galaxy and ends up as a passive elliptical with traces of SF truncation.

Keywords

Galaxies: elliptical and lenticularevolutioninteractionsstellar content
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 2 , Symposium S241: Stellar Populations as Building Blocks of Galaxies , December 2006 , pp. 404 - 408
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2007

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