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Register a new userStar Formation History and Chemical Evolution of the Sextans Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy
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We present the star formation history and chemical evolution of the Sextans dSph dwarf galaxy as a function of galactocentric distance. We derive these from the $VI$ photometry of stars in the $42 times 28$ field using the SMART model developed by Yuk & Lee (2007, ApJ, 668, 876) and adopting a closed-box model for chemical evolution. For the adopted age of Sextans 15 Gyr, we find that $>$84% of the stars formed prior to 11 Gyr ago, significant star formation extends from 15 to 11 Gyr ago ($sim$ 65% of the stars formed 13 to 15 Gyr ago while $sim$ 25% formed 11 to 13 Gyr ago), detectable star formation continued to at least 8 Gyr ago, the star formation history is more extended in the central regions than the outskirts, and the difference in star formation rates between the central and outer regions is most marked 11 to 13 Gyr ago. Whether blue straggler stars are interpreted as intermediate age main sequence stars affects conclusions regarding the star formation history for times 4 to 8 Gyr ago, but this is at most only a trace population. We find that the metallicity of the stars increased rapidly up to [Fe/H]=--1.6 in the central region and to [Fe/H]=--1.8 in the outer region within the first Gyr, and has varied slowly since then. The abundance ratios of several elements derived in this study are in good agreement with the observational data based on the high resolution spectroscopy in the literature. We conclude that the primary driver for the radial gradient of the stellar population in this galaxy is the star formation history, which self-consistently drives the chemical enrichment history.
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We present the analysis of the FLAMES dataset targeting the central 25 arcmin region of the Sextans dSph. This dataset is the third major part of the high resolution spectroscopic section of the ESO large program 171.B-0588(A) obtained by the Dwarf galaxy Abundances and Radial-velocities Team (DART). Our sample is composed of red giant branch stars down to the level of the horizontal branch in Sextans. It allows to address questions related to both stellar nucleosynthesis and galaxy evolution. We provide metallicities for 81 stars, which cover the wide [Fe/H]=$-$3.2 to $-$1.5 dex range. The abundances of 10 other elements are derived: Mg, Ca, Ti, Sc, Cr, Mn, Co, Ni, Ba, and Eu. Despite its small mass, Sextans is a chemically evolved system, with evidence for the contribution of core-collapse and Type Ia supernovae as well as low metallicity AGBs. This new FLAMES sample offers a sufficiently large number of stars with chemical abundances derived at high accuracy to firmly establish the existence of a plateau in [$alpha$/Fe] at $sim 0.4$ dex, followed by a decrease above [Fe/H]$sim-2$ dex. This is in stark similarity with the Fornax and Sculptor dSphs despite their very different masses and star formation histories. This suggests that these three galaxies had very similar star formation efficiencies in their early formation phases, probably driven by the early accretion of smaller galactic fragments, until the UV-background heating impacted them in different ways. The parallel between the Sculptor and Sextans dSph is also striking when considering Ba and Eu. Finally, as to the iron-peak elements, the decline of [Co/Fe] and [Ni/Fe] above [Fe/H]$sim -2$ implies that the production yields of Ni and Co in SNeIa is lower than that of Fe. The decrease in [Ni/Fe] favours models of SNeIa based on the explosion of double degenerate sub-Chandrasekhar mass white dwarfs.
We present the high-resolution spectroscopic analysis of two new extremely metal-poor stars (EMPS) candidates in the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Sextans. These targets were pre-selected from medium resolution spectra centered around the Ca II triplet in the near-infrared and followed-up at higher resolution with VLT/UVES. We confirm their low metallicities with [Fe/H]=-2.95 and [Fe/H]=-3.01, placing them among the most metal-poor stars known in Sextans. The abundances of 18 elements, including C, Na, the alpha-elements, Fe-peak, and neutron capture elements, are determined. In particular, we present the first measurements of Zn in a classical dwarf at extremely low metallicity. There has been previous hints of a large scatter in the abundance ratios of the Sextans stellar population around [Fe/H] -3 when compared to other galaxies. We took the opportunity of this work to re-analyse the full sample of EMPS and find a Milky-Way -like plateau and a normal dispersion at fixed metallicity.
We explore a range of chemical evolution models for the Local Group dwarf spheroidal (dSph) galaxy, Carina. A novel aspect of our work is the removal of the star formation history (SFH) as a `free parameter in the modeling, making use, instead, of its colour-magnitude diagram (CMD)-constrained SFH. By varying the relative roles of galactic winds, re-accretion, and ram-pressure stripping within the modeling, we converge on a favoured scenario which emphasises the respective roles of winds and re-accretion. While our model is successful in recovering most elemental abundance patterns, comparable success is not found for all the neutron capture elements. Neglecting the effects of stripping results in predicted gas fractions approximately two orders of magnitude too high, relative to that observed.
We present the Star Formation History (SFH) and the age-metallicity relation (AMR) in three fields of the Fornax dwarf spheroidal galaxy. They sample a region spanning from the centre of the galaxy to beyond one core radius, which allows studying galactocentric gradients. In all the cases, we found stars as old as 12 Gyr, together with intermediate-age and young stellar populations. The last star formation events, as young as 1 Gyr old, are mainly located in the central region, which may indicate that the gas reservoir in the outer parts of the galaxy would have been exhausted earlier than in the centre or removed by tidal interactions. The AMR is smoothly increasing in the three analyzed regions and similar to each other, indicating that no significant metallicity gradient is apparent within and around the core radius of Fornax. No significant traces of global UV-reionization or local SNe feedback are appreciated in the early SFH of Fornax. Our study is based on FORS1@VLT photometry as deep as I~24.5 and the IAC-star/IAC-pop/MinnIAC suite of codes for the determination of the SFH in resolved stellar populations.
[abridged] We study the resolved stellar populations and derive the SFH of the SDIG, a gas-rich dwarf galaxy member of the NGC7793 subgroup in the Sculptor group. We construct a CMD using archival HST observations and examine its stellar content. We derive its SFH using a maximum-likelihood fit to the CMD. The CMD shows that SDIG contains stars from 10Myr to several Gyr old, as revealed from the MS, BL, luminous AGB, and RGB stars. The young stars with ages less than ~250Myr show a spatial distribution confined to its central regions, and additionally the young MS stars exhibit an off-center density peak. The intermediate-age and older stars are more spatially extended. SDIG is dominated by intermediate-age stars with an average age of 6.4Gyr. The average metallicity inferred is [M/H]approx -1.5dex. Its SFH is consistent with a constant SFR, except for ages younger than ~200Myr. The lifetime average SFR is 1.3x10^{-3} Mo/yr. More recently than 100Myr, there has been a burst of SF at a rate ~2-3 times higher than the average SFR. The inferred recent SFR from CMD modelling is higher than inferred from the Ha flux of the galaxy; we interpret this to mean that the upper end of the IMF is not being fully sampled due to the low SFR. Additionally, an observed lack of bright blue stars in the CMD could indicate a downturn in SFR on 10^7-yr timescales. A previous SF enhancement appears to have occurred between 600-1100Myr ago, with amplitude similar to the most recent 100Myr. Older bursts of similar peak SFR and duration would not be resolvable with these data. The observed enhancements in SF suggest that SDIG is able to sustain a complex SFH without the effect of interactions with its nearest massive galaxy. Integrating the SFR over the entire history of SDIG yields a total stellar mass 1.77x10^{7}Mo, and a current V-band stellar mass-to-light ratio 3.2Mo/Lo.
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