Stellar Abundances at the Center of Early Type Galaxies with Fine Structure

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Barth, Nicholas, Privon, George C., Ezzeddine, Rana, Evans, Aaron S., Treister, Ezequiel
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Barth, Nicholas
Privon, George C.
Ezzeddine, Rana
Evans, Aaron S.
Treister, Ezequiel
author_facet Barth, Nicholas
Privon, George C.
Ezzeddine, Rana
Evans, Aaron S.
Treister, Ezequiel
contents Our understanding of early-type galaxies (ETGs) has grown in the past decade with the advance of full-spectrum fitting techniques used to infer the properties of the stellar populations that make-up the galaxy. We present ages, central velocity dispersions, and abundance ratios relative to Fe of C, N, O, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Sr, Ba, and Eu, derived using full-spectrum fitting techniques for three ETGs NGC 2865, NGC 3818, and NGC 4915. Each of these three galaxies were selected because they have optical, disturbed structures (fine structure) that are linked to major merger events that occurred 1, 7, and 6 Gyr ago, respectively. Two of the ETGs, NGC 3818 and NGC 4915, show chemical signatures similar to ETGs without fine structure, which is consistent with a gas-poor merger of elliptical galaxies in which substantial star formation is not expected. For NGC 2865, we find a statistically higher abundance of Ca (an $α$-element) and Cr and Mn (Fe-peak elements). We show that for NGC 2865, a simple gas-rich merger scenario fails to explain the larger abundance ratios compared to ETGs without fine structure. These three early-type galaxies with fine structure exhibit a range of abundances, suggesting ETGs with fine structure can form via multiple pathways and types of galaxy mergers.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_13459
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stellar Abundances at the Center of Early Type Galaxies with Fine Structure
Barth, Nicholas
Privon, George C.
Ezzeddine, Rana
Evans, Aaron S.
Treister, Ezequiel
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Our understanding of early-type galaxies (ETGs) has grown in the past decade with the advance of full-spectrum fitting techniques used to infer the properties of the stellar populations that make-up the galaxy. We present ages, central velocity dispersions, and abundance ratios relative to Fe of C, N, O, Mg, Si, Ca, Ti, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Sr, Ba, and Eu, derived using full-spectrum fitting techniques for three ETGs NGC 2865, NGC 3818, and NGC 4915. Each of these three galaxies were selected because they have optical, disturbed structures (fine structure) that are linked to major merger events that occurred 1, 7, and 6 Gyr ago, respectively. Two of the ETGs, NGC 3818 and NGC 4915, show chemical signatures similar to ETGs without fine structure, which is consistent with a gas-poor merger of elliptical galaxies in which substantial star formation is not expected. For NGC 2865, we find a statistically higher abundance of Ca (an $α$-element) and Cr and Mn (Fe-peak elements). We show that for NGC 2865, a simple gas-rich merger scenario fails to explain the larger abundance ratios compared to ETGs without fine structure. These three early-type galaxies with fine structure exhibit a range of abundances, suggesting ETGs with fine structure can form via multiple pathways and types of galaxy mergers.
title Stellar Abundances at the Center of Early Type Galaxies with Fine Structure
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.13459