Related papers: Systematic Variations in Age and Metallicity Along…
We demonstrate a significant (> 5-sigma) correlation between the mean color of metal-poor globular cluster (GC) systems and parent galaxy luminosity. A Bayesian Markov Chain Monte Carlo method is introduced to find the mean color, and is…
We present spectroscopic linestrength data for 4097 red-sequence galaxies in 93 low-redshift galaxy clusters, and use these to investigate variations in average stellar populations as a function of galaxy mass. Our analysis includes an…
We studied the stellar populations of 40 early-type galaxies using medium resolution long-slit spectroscopy along their major axes (and along the minor axis for two of them), from 10^7 Msol to 10^12 Msol (-9.2 > M_B > -22.4 mag). All the…
I discuss the formation of alpha-enhanced metal-rich stellar populations in the nuclei of luminous ellipticals. Based on hierarchical clustering, different galaxy formation scenarios, which imply different star formation histories, are…
A full appreciation of the role played by gas metallicity (Z), star-formation rate (SFR), and stellar mass is fundamental to understanding how galaxies form and evolve. The connections between these three parameters at different redshifts…
We present results from a near-infrared $K$-band imaging survey of 59 elliptical galaxies in five nearby clusters. We measure photometric parameters for each galaxy using surface photometry and draw velocity dispersions from the literature.…
We describe an equilibrium model that links the metallicity of low-redshift galaxies to stellar evolution models. It enables the testing of different stellar initial mass functions and metal yields against observed galaxy metallicities. We…
The well-established correlations between the mass of a galaxy and the properties of its stars are considered evidence for mass driving the evolution of the stellar population. However, for early-type galaxies (ETGs), we find that $g-i$…
Aims. We investigate the environmental dependence of the stellar mass fundamental plane (FP$_*$) using the early-type galaxy sample from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 (SDSS DR7). Methods. The FP$_*$ is calculated by replacing…
In this paper we explore several structural and dynamical effects on the projected velocity dispersion as possible causes of the fundamental plane (FP) tilt of elliptical galaxies. Specifically, we determine the size of the systematic trend…
We have performed VLT spectroscopy of an almost complete sample of 18 early-type galaxies with 0.88 < z < 1.3 plus two at z=0.67, selected from the K20 survey, and derived the velocity dispersion for 15+2 of them. By combining these data…
We present a simple toy model to understand what sets the scatter in star formation and metallicity of galaxies at fixed mass. The scatter ultimately arises from the intrinsic scatter in the accretion rate, but may be substantially reduced…
In this second of a series of papers on spatially resolved star formation, we investigate the impact of the density-morphology relation of galaxies on the spatial variation of star formation (SF) and its dependence on environment. We find…
Star formation in the early Universe has left its imprint on the chemistry of observable stars in galaxies. We derive elemental abundances and the slope of the low-mass end of the initial mass function (IMF) for a sample of 25 very massive…
We use a sample of 43,690 galaxies selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 4 to study the systematic effects of specific star formation rate (SSFR) and galaxy size (as measured by the half light radius, r_h) on the…
The chemical evolution of galaxies is investigated within the framework of the star formation rate (SFR) dependent integrated galactic initial mass function (IGIMF). We study how the global chemical evolution of a galaxy and in particular…
Stellar population parameters correlate with a range of galaxy properties, but it is unclear which relations are causal and which are the result of another underlying trend. In this series, we quantitatively compare trends between stellar…
The scaling relationship is a fundamental probe of the evolution of galaxies. Using the integral field spectroscopic data from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory survey, we select 1698 spaxels with significant detection…
This is the second paper of a series devoted to study the stellar content of early-type galaxies. The goal of the series is to set constraints on the evolutionary status of these objects. We use a new set of models which include an improved…
We use the spectra of ~ 22,000 early-type galaxies, selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, to infer the ages, metallicities and star formation histories of these galaxies. We find clear evidence of "downsizing", i.e. galaxies with…