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Metallicity Gradients in the Halos of Elliptical Galaxies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 May 2016
Abstract
We discuss the stellar halos of massive elliptical galaxies, as revealed by our ambitious integral-field spectroscopic survey MASSIVE. We show that metallicity drops smoothly as a function of radius out to ~ 2.5 Re, while the [α/Fe] abundance ratios stay flat. The stars in the outskirts likely formed rapidly (to explain the high ratio of alpha to Fe) but in a relatively shallow potential (to explain the low metallicities). This is consistent with expectations for a two-phase growth of massive galaxies, in which the second phase involves accretion of small satellites. We also show some preliminary study of the gas content of these most MASSIVE galaxies.
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- Contributed Papers
- Information
- Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 11 , Issue S317: The General Assembly of Galaxy Halos: Structure, Origin and Evolution , August 2015 , pp. 182 - 189
- Copyright
- Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2016