The role of E+A and post-starburst galaxies - II. Spectral energy distributions and comparison with observations

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that broad-band spectral energy distributions (SEDs) effectively identify and distinguish post-starburst galaxies, matching observed E+A galaxies and revealing differences from other galaxy types based on their SEDs.

Contribution

It introduces and validates a new SED-based method for selecting and differentiating post-starburst galaxies, improving upon classical spectral line criteria.

Findings

Post-starburst models can be distinguished from other galaxy types by their SEDs.

All observed E+A galaxies from the MORPHS catalog are matched by the models.

Short decline timescales in star formation are consistent with observed E+A galaxies.

Abstract

In a previous paper (Falkenberg, Kotulla & Fritze 2009, arXiv:0901.1665) we have shown that the classical definition of E+A galaxies excludes a significant number of post-starburst galaxies. We suggested that analysing broad-band spectral energy distributions (SEDs) is a more comprehensive method to select and distinguish poststarburst galaxies than the classical definition of measuring equivalent widths of (Hdelta) and [OII] lines. In this paper we will carefully investigate this new method and evaluate it by comparing our model grid of post-starburst galaxies to observed E+A galaxies from the MORPHS catalog. We find that the post-starburst models can be distinguished from undisturbed spiral, S0 and E galaxies and galaxies in their starburst phase on the basis of their SEDs. It is even possible to distinguish most of the different post-starburst by their SEDs. From the comparison with observations we find that all observed E+A galaxies from the MORPHS catalog can be matched by our models. However only models with short decline timescales for the star formation rate are possible scenarios for the observed E+A galaxies in agreement with our results from the first paper (see Falkenberg, Kotulla & Fritze 2009a). (abridged)