Related papers: Constraints on galaxy formation from alpha-enhance…
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…
The chemical enrichment and stellar abundance ratios of galaxies which form in a hierarchical clustering scheme are calculated. For this purpose I adopt the star formation histories (SFH) as they are delivered by semi-analytic models in…
We consider the hypothesis that the formation of elliptical galaxies includes a phase in which star formation is mostly restricted to massive stars, with the bias towards high mass stars increasing with elliptical galaxy mass. The mass…
We investigate the metal enrichment of elliptical galaxies in the framework of hierarchical models of galaxy formation. The semi-analytical model we use in this Letter, which has been used to study the metal enrichment of the intracluster…
Recent evidence based independently on spectral line strengths and dynamical modelling point towards a non-universal stellar Initial Mass Function (IMF), probably implying an excess of low-mass stars in elliptical galaxies with a high…
In models of galaxy formation in a hierarchical Universe, elliptical galaxies form through the merging of smaller disk systems. These models yield a number of testable predictions if reliable techniques for determining the relative ages and…
The current knowledge on the stellar IMF is documented. It appears to become top-heavy when the star-formation rate density surpasses about 0.1Msun/(yr pc^3) on a pc scale and it may become increasingly bottom-heavy with increasing…
In this paper, basic observational properties of elliptical galaxies such as the integrated spectra, the chemical abundances and the enhancement of $\alpha$-elements inferred from broad-band colors and line strength indices $Mg_2$ and $< Fe…
We compute new population synthesis models of Lick absorption line indices with variable alpha/Fe ratios and use them to derive average ages, metallicities, and alpha/Fe element enhancements for a sample of 126 field and cluster early-type…
We compare [alpha/Fe], metallicity, and age distributions of globular clusters in elliptical, lenticular, and spiral galaxies, which we derive from Lick line index measurements. We find a large number of globular clusters in elliptical…
We investigate the time evolution and spatial variation of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) in star-forming disk galaxies by using chemodynamical simulations with an IMF model depending both on local densities and metallicities…
The most massive elliptical galaxies apparently formed the fastest, because the ratio of alpha elements (such as oxygen) to iron is the smallest. In fact, iron is mainly produced from type Ia supernovae on a timescale of ~ 0.1-1 billion…
The chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge is treated here in the context of an inside-out model for the Galaxy formation. We assume that this central region evolved even faster than the Galactic halo and test the effect of changing the…
If we accept a paradigm that star formation is a self-similar, hierarchical process, then the Salpeter slope of the IMF for high-mass stars can be simply and elegantly explained as follows. If the instrinsic IMF at the smallest scales…
We consider the present-day photometric and chemical properties of elliptical galaxies, adopting the bimodal star formation scenario of Elbaz, Arnaud & Vangioni-Flam (1995). These models utilise an initial mass function (IMF) biased heavily…
We present a detailed stellar population analysis of 27 massive elliptical galaxies within 4 very rich clusters at redshift z~0.2: A115, A655, A963 and A2111. Using the new, high-resolution stellar populations models developed in our group,…
Over the past years observations of young and populous star clusters have shown that the stellar IMF appears to be an invariant featureless Salpeter power-law with an exponent alpha=2.35 for stars more massive than a few Msun. A consensus…
We perform numerical simulations of galaxy mergers between star-forming and gas-rich spirals in order to explore the origin of the Fundamental Plane (FP) of elliptical galaxies. We consider particularly that the origin of the slope of the…
The stellar IMF has been found to be an invariant Salpeter power-law (alpha=2.35) above about 1 Msun, but at the same time a massive star typically has more than one companion. This constrains the possible formation scenarios of massive…
We review our current knowledge on the IMF in nearby environments, massive star forming regions, super star clusters, starbursts and alike objects from studies of integrated light, and discuss the various techniques used to constrain the…