Séminaire Doctoral / Seminar PhD |
| « The alpha-enhancement of massive galaxies » |
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Emilie Pernet |
| Observations of nearby massive galaxies have revealed that they are older and richer in metals and magnesium than their low-mass counterparts. In particular, the overabundance of magnesium compared to iron, [Mg/Fe], is interpreted to reflect the short star formation history that the current massive galaxies underwent early in the Universe. We present a systematic revision of the [Mg/Fe] – velocity dispersion (s) relation based on stacked spectra of early-type galaxies with a high signal-to-noise ratio from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Using the penalized pixel-fitting (pPXF) method and the MILES single stellar population models, we fit a wide optical wavelength range to measure the net a-abundance. The combination of pPXF and a-enhanced MILES models incorrectly leads to an apparently decreasing trend of [a/Fe] with velocity dispersion. We interpret this result as a consequence of variations in the individual abundances of the different a-elements. This warrants caution for a naive use of full spectral fitting algorithms paired with stellar population models that do not take individual elemental abundance variations into account, especially when deriving averaged quantities such as the mean [a/Fe] of a stellar population. |
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vendredi 24 janvier 2025 - 16:00 Salle des séminaires Évry Schatzman, Institut d'Astrophysique |
| Page web du séminaire / Seminar's webpage |