The relative age of galaxies at different redshifts can be used to infer the Hubble parameter and put constraints on cosmological models. We select 23,883 quiescent luminous red galaxies (LRGs) from the SDSS DR7, dividing them into four sub-samples according to their velocity dispersions. Each sub-sample was further divided into 12 redshift bins. The spectra of the LRGs in each redshift and velocity bin were co-added. Adopting the GalexEV/SteLib model, we estimate the mean ages of the LRGs from these combined spectra by the full-spectrum fitting method and find it is consistent with the well known “downsizing” formation of galaxies. Based on the age–redshift relation, we further estimate the Hubble parameter.
