Why the Northern Hemisphere Needs a 30-40m Telescope and the Science at Stake: Shaping Galaxies and Their Stars with Stellar Population Gradients, IMF Variations and Environmental Drivers in Cluster Early-Type Galaxies
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| author | Vazdekis, A. Sánchez-Blázquez, P. Ferré-Mateu, A. Martín-Navarro, I. Beasley, M. A. Aguerri, J. A. L. Camps-Fariña, A. de Lorenzo-Cáceres, A. Eftekhari, E. Falcón-Barroso, J. Ferreras, I. La Barbera, F. García-Benito, R. Delgado, R. M. González Longhetti, M. Maraston, C. Pérez, I. Pinna, F. Quilis, V. Peletier, R. F. Sánchez-Sánchez, S. F. Sansom, A. Scholz-Díaz, L. Spiniello, C. Thomas, D. Villaver, E. |
| author_facet | Vazdekis, A. Sánchez-Blázquez, P. Ferré-Mateu, A. Martín-Navarro, I. Beasley, M. A. Aguerri, J. A. L. Camps-Fariña, A. de Lorenzo-Cáceres, A. Eftekhari, E. Falcón-Barroso, J. Ferreras, I. La Barbera, F. García-Benito, R. Delgado, R. M. González Longhetti, M. Maraston, C. Pérez, I. Pinna, F. Quilis, V. Peletier, R. F. Sánchez-Sánchez, S. F. Sansom, A. Scholz-Díaz, L. Spiniello, C. Thomas, D. Villaver, E. |
| contents | This white paper highlights how stellar population gradients, chemical abundance patterns, stellar initial mass function (IMF) variations, and structural signatures in early-type galaxies (ETGs), measured at faint and large galactocentric radii, out to $\sim4R_e$, provide powerful diagnostics of their formation and evolutionary histories. These observables encode the combined effects of early dissipative star formation, subsequent accretion and mergers, and internal feedback processes. Achieving such measurements requires high-signal-to-noise, spatially resolved U-band--optical--near-IR spectroscopy at large radii, with enough spatial resolution to study the variation of these properties on $\sim$kpc scales. These capabilities can only be delivered by a 30\,m-class telescope. Disentangling these internal processes from environmental influences further demands observations of galaxies across clusters spanning a wide range of evolutionary stages and local environments. The nearby Virgo, Perseus, and Coma clusters, without any comparable nearby counterparts in the Southern Hemisphere, offer ideal laboratories for this work. Such observations will place stringent constraints on the formation mechanism of ETGs, connecting local cluster ETGs to their high-redshift progenitors. This white paper outlines several key science cases enabled by such a facility: (1) mapping stellar population gradients across environments; (2) tracing IMF variations as a function of evolutionary stage and environment; (3) reconstructing the three-dimensional structure of galaxies through deep integral-field spectroscopy and imaging; and (4) identifying and studying compact and relic systems as progenitors of present-day ETGs. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_14780 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Why the Northern Hemisphere Needs a 30-40m Telescope and the Science at Stake: Shaping Galaxies and Their Stars with Stellar Population Gradients, IMF Variations and Environmental Drivers in Cluster Early-Type Galaxies Vazdekis, A. Sánchez-Blázquez, P. Ferré-Mateu, A. Martín-Navarro, I. Beasley, M. A. Aguerri, J. A. L. Camps-Fariña, A. de Lorenzo-Cáceres, A. Eftekhari, E. Falcón-Barroso, J. Ferreras, I. La Barbera, F. García-Benito, R. Delgado, R. M. González Longhetti, M. Maraston, C. Pérez, I. Pinna, F. Quilis, V. Peletier, R. F. Sánchez-Sánchez, S. F. Sansom, A. Scholz-Díaz, L. Spiniello, C. Thomas, D. Villaver, E. Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies This white paper highlights how stellar population gradients, chemical abundance patterns, stellar initial mass function (IMF) variations, and structural signatures in early-type galaxies (ETGs), measured at faint and large galactocentric radii, out to $\sim4R_e$, provide powerful diagnostics of their formation and evolutionary histories. These observables encode the combined effects of early dissipative star formation, subsequent accretion and mergers, and internal feedback processes. Achieving such measurements requires high-signal-to-noise, spatially resolved U-band--optical--near-IR spectroscopy at large radii, with enough spatial resolution to study the variation of these properties on $\sim$kpc scales. These capabilities can only be delivered by a 30\,m-class telescope. Disentangling these internal processes from environmental influences further demands observations of galaxies across clusters spanning a wide range of evolutionary stages and local environments. The nearby Virgo, Perseus, and Coma clusters, without any comparable nearby counterparts in the Southern Hemisphere, offer ideal laboratories for this work. Such observations will place stringent constraints on the formation mechanism of ETGs, connecting local cluster ETGs to their high-redshift progenitors. This white paper outlines several key science cases enabled by such a facility: (1) mapping stellar population gradients across environments; (2) tracing IMF variations as a function of evolutionary stage and environment; (3) reconstructing the three-dimensional structure of galaxies through deep integral-field spectroscopy and imaging; and (4) identifying and studying compact and relic systems as progenitors of present-day ETGs. |
| title | Why the Northern Hemisphere Needs a 30-40m Telescope and the Science at Stake: Shaping Galaxies and Their Stars with Stellar Population Gradients, IMF Variations and Environmental Drivers in Cluster Early-Type Galaxies |
| topic | Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.14780 |