The MASSIVE Survey II: Stellar Population Trends Out to Large Radius in Massive Early Type Galaxies

TL;DR

This study investigates stellar population gradients in approximately 100 massive early type galaxies, revealing how age, metallicity, and elemental ratios vary with radius and galaxy properties, informing galaxy formation models.

Contribution

It provides new insights into radial stellar population trends extending beyond the galaxy cores, emphasizing the roles of galaxy mass, velocity dispersion, and environment.

Findings

Age and [alpha/Fe] increase with sigma* at 3-6 kpc radius.

Abundance ratios show weak dependence on stellar mass at large radii.

Environmental effects are minimal compared to internal galaxy properties.

Abstract

We examine stellar population gradients in ~100 massive early type galaxies spanning 180 < sigma* < 370 km/s and M_K of -22.5 to -26.5 mag, observed as part of the MASSIVE survey (Ma et al. 2014). Using integral-field spectroscopy from the Mitchell Spectrograph on the 2.7m telescope at McDonald Observatory, we create stacked spectra as a function of radius for galaxies binned by their stellar velocity dispersion, stellar mass, and group richness. With excellent sampling at the highest stellar mass, we examine radial trends in stellar population properties extending to beyond twice the effective radius (~2.5 R_e). Specifically, we examine trends in age, metallicity, and abundance ratios of Mg, C, N, and Ca, and discuss the implications for star formation histories and elemental yields. At a fixed physical radius of 3-6 kpc (the likely size of the galaxy cores formed at high redshift) stellar age and [alpha/Fe] increase with increasing sigma* and depend only weakly on stellar mass, as we might expect if denser galaxies form their central cores earlier and faster. If we instead focus on 1-1.5 R_e, the trends in abundance and abundance ratio are washed out, as might be expected if the stars at large radius were accreted by smaller galaxies. Finally, we show that when controlling for \sigmastar, there are only very subtle differences in stellar population properties or gradients as a function of group richness; even at large radius internal properties matter more than environment in determining star formation history.