arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
arXiv 1201.2409astro-ph.CO
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剖析局域宇宙中星系的形态学和光谱学性质:I。椭圆星系

Dissecting the morphological and spectroscopic properties of galaxies in the local Universe: I. Elliptical galaxies

J. A. L. Aguerri, M. Huertas-Company, J. Sánchez Almeida, C. Munoz-Tunon

摘要:

我们重新审视的缩放关系和恒星形成的历史,本地椭圆星系使用一种新的选择方法适用于斯隆数字巡天DR 7。我们结合两个概率为基础的自动光谱和形态分类约60万星系z<0.25隔离真正的椭圆星系。我们的样本选择方法并没有引入人工削减描述星系的参数,而是将每个对象与一个权重相关联,该权重测量在给定光谱形态类中的概率。因此,样本使选择偏差最小化。我们发现,形态定义的椭圆星系基本上分布在3个光谱类,占主导地位,在不同的恒星质量。大部分的人口(约50%)是由一个明确定义的星系类与旧的恒星星族,形成他们的恒星在非常早期的时期,在一个短暂的恒星形成插曲。他们主导的椭圆星系的标度关系已知从以前的作品,并代表典型的椭圆类。在低质量的一端,我们发现人口稍大的椭圆,在固定的恒星质量,这似乎经历了一个更近的插曲恒星形成可能引发的气体丰富的未成年人合并的速度色散较小。高质量端往往由第三光谱类主导,比参考类稍微更富含金属,恒星形成效率更高。这第三类有助于曲率的质量-尺寸关系在高质量在以前的作品中报道。因此,我们的方法是能够隔离的椭圆星系的典型光谱遵循不同的演化路径。

英文摘要:

We revisit the scaling relations and star-forming histories of local elliptical galaxies using a novel selection method applied to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7. We combine two probability-based automated spectroscopic and morphological classifications of about 600000 galaxies with z<0.25 to isolate true elliptical galaxies. Our sample selection method does not introduce artificial cuts in the parameters describing the galaxy but instead it associates to every object a weight measuring the probability of being in a given spectro-morphological class. Thus the sample minimizes the selection biases. We show that morphologically defined ellipticals are basically distributed in 3 spectral classes, which dominate at different stellar masses. The bulk of the population (about 50%) is formed by a well defined class of galaxies with old stellar populations that formed their stars at very early epochs in a short episode of star formation. They dominate the scaling relations of elliptical galaxies known from previous works and represent the canonical elliptical class. At the low mass end, we find a population of slightly larger ellipticals, with smaller velocity dispersions at fixed stellar mass, which seem to have experienced a more recent episode of star formation probably triggered by gas-rich minor mergers. The high mass end tends to be dominated by a third spectral class, slightly more metal rich and with more efficient stellar formation than the reference class. This third class contributes to the curvature of the mass-size relation at high masses reported in previous works. Our method is therefore able to isolate typical spectra of elliptical galaxies following different evolutive pathways.

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