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Stellar age versus mass of early-type galaxies in the Virgo Cluster

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 Added by Thorsten Lisker
 Publication date 2008
  fields Physics
and research's language is English




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The flux excess of elliptical galaxies in the far-ultraviolet can be reproduced by population synthesis models when accounting for the population of old hot helium-burning subdwarf stars. This has been achieved by Han and coworkers through a quantitative model of binary stellar evolution. Here, we compare the resulting evolutionary population synthesis model to the GALEX far-near ultraviolet colors (FUV-NUV) of Virgo cluster early-type galaxies that were published by Boselli and coworkers. FUV-NUV is reddest at about the dividing luminosity of dwarf and giant galaxies, and becomes increasingly blue for both brighter and fainter luminosities. This behavior can be easily explained by the binary model with a continuous sequence of longer duration and later truncation of star formation at lower galaxy masses. Thus, in contrast to previous conclusions, the GALEX data do not require a dichotomy between the stellar population properties of dwarfs and giants. Their apparently opposite behavior in FUV-NUV occurs naturally when the formation of hot subdwarfs through binary evolution is taken into account.



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[Abridged] Using VLT/FORS2 spectroscopy, we have studied the properties of the central stellar populations of a sample of 38 nucleated early-type dwarf (dE) galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. We find that these galaxies do not exhibit the same average stellar population characteristics for different morphological subclasses. The nucleated galaxies without discs are older and more metal poor than the dEs with discs . The alpha-element abundance ratio appears consistent with the solar value for both morphological types. Besides a well-defined relation of metallicity and luminosity, we also find a clear anti-correlation between age and luminosity. More specifically, there appears to be a bimodality: brighter galaxies, including the discy ones, exhibit significantly younger ages than fainter dEs. Therefore, it appears less likely that fainter and brighter dEs have experienced the same evolutionary history, as the well-established trend of decreasing average stellar age when going from the most luminous ellipticals towards low-luminosity Es and bright dEs is broken here. The older and more metal-poor dEs could have had an early termination of star formation activity, possibly being primordial galaxies in the sense that they have formed along with the protocluster or experienced very early infall. By contrast, the younger and relatively metal-rich brighter dEs, most of which have discs, might have undergone structural transformation of infalling disc galaxies.
We study the UV properties of a volume limited sample of early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster combining new GALEX far- (1530 A) and near-ultraviolet (2310 A) data with spectro-photometric data available at other wavelengths. The sample includes 264 ellipticals, lenticulars and dwarfs spanning a large range in luminosity (M(B)<-15). While the NUV to optical or near-IR color magnitude relations (CMR) are similar to those observed at optical wavelengths, with a monotonic reddening of the color index with increasing luminosity, the (FUV-V) and (FUV-H) CMRs show a discontinuity between massive and dwarf objects. An even more pronounced dichotomy is observed in the (FUV-NUV) CMR. For ellipticals the (FUV-NUV) color becomes bluer with increasing luminosity and with increasing reddening of the optical or near-IR color indices. For the dwarfs the opposite trend is observed. These observational evidences are consistent with the idea that the UV emission is dominated by hot, evolved stars in giant systems, while in dwarf ellipticals residual star formation activity is more common.
We analyze the stellar kinematics of 39 dwarf early-type galaxies (dEs) in the Virgo cluster. Based on the specific stellar angular momentum lambda_e and the ellipticity, we find 11 slow rotators and 28 fast rotators. The fast rotators in the outer parts of the Virgo cluster rotate significantly faster than fast rotators in the inner parts of the cluster. Moreover, 10 out of the 11 slow rotators are located in the inner 3 degrees (D < 1 Mpc) of the cluster. The fast rotators contain subtle disky structures that are visible in high-pass filtered optical images, while the slow rotators do not exhibit these structures. In addition, two of the dEs have kinematically decoupled cores and four more have emission partially filling in the Balmer absorption lines. These properties suggest that Virgo cluster dEs may have originated from late-type star-forming galaxies that were transformed by the environment after their infall into the cluster. The correlation between lambda_e and the clustercentric distance can be explained by a scenario where low luminosity star-forming galaxies fall into the cluster, their gas is rapidly removed by ram pressure stripping, although some of it can be retained in their core, their star-formation is quenched but their stellar kinematics are preserved. After a long time in the cluster and several passes through its center, the galaxies are heated up and transformed into slow rotating dEs.
Aims. We study the dust content of a large optical input sample of 910 early-type galaxies (ETG) in the Virgo cluster, extending also to the dwarf ETG, and examine the results in relation with those on the other cold ISM components. Methods. We searched for far-infrared emission in all galaxies of the input sample using the 250 micron image of the Herschel Virgo Cluster Survey (HeViCS). This image covers a large fraction of the cluster. For the detected ETG we measured fluxes in 5 bands from 100 to 500 micron, and estimated the dust mass and temperature with modified black-body fits. Results. Dust is detected above the completeness limit of 25.4 mJy at 250 micron in 46 ETG, 43 of which are in the optically complete part of the input sample. In addition dust is present at fainter levels in another 6 ETG. We detect dust in the 4 ETG with synchrotron emission, including M 87. Dust appears to be much more concentrated than stars and more luminous ETG have higher dust temperatures. Dust detection rates down to the 25.4 mJy limit are 17% for ellipticals, about 40% for lenticulars (S0 + S0a) and around 3% for dwarf ETG. Dust mass does not correlate clearly with stellar mass and is often much more than that expected for a passive galaxy in a closed-box model. The dust-to-stars mass ratio anticorrelates with galaxy luminosity, and for some dwarf ETG reaches values as high as for dusty late-type galaxies. In the Virgo cluster slow rotators appear more likely to contain dust than fast ones. Comparing the dust results with those on HI from ALFALFA, there are only 8 ETG detected both in dust and in HI in the HeViCS area; 39 have dust but only an upper limit on HI, and 8 have HI but only an upper limit on dust. The locations of these galaxies in the cluster are different, with the dusty ETG concentrated in the densest regions, while the HI rich ETG are at the periphery.
We present the results of a 8.4 GHz Very Large Array radio survey of early-type galaxies extracted from the ACS Virgo Cluster Survey. The aim of this survey is to investigate the origin of radio emission in early-type galaxies and its link with the host properties in an unexplored territory toward the lowest levels of both radio and optical luminosities. Radio images, available for all 63 galaxies with BT < 14.4, show the presence of a compact radio source in 12 objects, with fluxes spanning from 0.13 to 2700 mJy. The remaining 51 galaxies, undetected at a flux limit of ~0.1 mJy, have radio luminosities L < 4 10E18 W/Hz . The fraction of radio-detected galaxies are a strong function of stellar mass, in agreement with previous results: none of the 30 galaxies with stellar mass M(star) < 1.7 10E10 M(sun) is detected, while 8 of the 11 most massive galaxies have radio cores. There appears to be no simple relation between the presence of a stellar nucleus and radio emission. A multiwavelength analysis of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) emission, combining radio and X-ray data, confirms the link between optical surface brightness profile and radio loudness in the sense that the bright core galaxies are associated with radio-loud AGNs, while non-core galaxies host radio-quiet AGNs. Not all radio-detected galaxies have a X-ray nuclear counter part (and vice-versa). A complete census of AGNs (and supermassive black holes, SMBHs) thus requires observations, at least, in both bands. Nonetheless, there are massive galaxies in the sample, expected to host a large SMBH (M(BH) ~ 10E8 M(sun)), whose nuclear emission eludes detection despite their proximity and the depth and the spatial resolution of the available observations. Most likely this is due to an extremely low level of accretion onto the central SMBH.
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