Ages and Abundances of Red Sequence Galaxies as a Function of LINER Emission Line Strength

TL;DR

This study examines how the ages and chemical compositions of red sequence galaxies vary with LINER emission strength, revealing that LINER-active galaxies are younger and have distinct elemental abundance patterns compared to inactive ones.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of stellar populations in LINER-emitting and non-emitting red sequence galaxies using SDSS data and advanced stellar population models.

Findings

LINER-active galaxies are 2-3.5 Gyr younger than inactive ones at the same velocity dispersion.

Stellar age and [Fe/H] increase with velocity dispersion across all galaxies.

Elemental abundance ratios [Mg/Fe], [C/Fe], and [N/Fe] increase with velocity dispersion.

Abstract

Although the spectrum of a prototypical early-type galaxy is assumed to lack emission lines, a substantial fraction (likely as high as 30%) of nearby red sequence galaxy spectra contain emission lines with line ratios characteristic of low ionization nuclear emission-line regions (LINERs). We use spectra of ~6000 galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) in a narrow redshift slice (0.06 < z < 0.08) to compare the stellar populations of red sequence galaxies with and without LINER-like emission. The spectra are binned by internal velocity dispersion and by emission properties to produce high S/N stacked spectra. The recent stellar population models of R. Schiavon (2007) make it possible to measure ages, [Fe/H], and individual elemental abundance ratios [Mg/Fe], [C/Fe], [N/Fe], and [Ca/Fe] for each of the stacked spectra. We find that red sequence galaxies with strong LINER-like emission are systematically 2-3.5 Gyr (10-40%) younger than their emission-free counterparts at the same velocity dispersion. This suggests a connection between the mechanism powering the emission (whether AGN, post-AGB stars, shocks, or cooling flows) and more recent star formation in the galaxy. We find that mean stellar age and [Fe/H] increase with velocity dispersion for all galaxies. Elemental abundance [Mg/Fe] increases modestly with velocity dispersion in agreement with previous results, and [C/Fe] and [N/Fe] increase more strongly with velocity dispersion than does [Mg/Fe]. [Ca/Fe] appears to be roughly solar for all galaxies. At fixed velocity dispersion, galaxies with fainter r-band luminosities have lower [Fe/H] and older ages but similar abundance ratios compared to brighter galaxies.