SDSS-IV MaNGA: The [$\alpha$/Fe] of Early-Type Galaxies

TL;DR

This study measures the alpha-to-iron abundance ratio in early-type galaxies using spectral fitting, revealing a generally flat relation with velocity dispersion and highlighting issues with certain spectral features.

Contribution

It applies the Vazdekis et al. models with pPXF to estimate [$ ext{alpha}$/Fe] in 196 ETGs, analyzing the relation with velocity dispersion and addressing spectral fitting challenges.

Findings

[$ ext{alpha}$/Fe] shows a flat relation with velocity dispersion.

Excluding Mg$_1$ feature reveals a positive correlation, consistent with previous studies.

Spectral fitting with Vazdekis models is reliable with Mg$_b$ but problematic with Mg$_1$ in metal-rich regimes.

Abstract

The mean stellar alpha-to-iron abundance ratio ([$\alpha$/Fe]) of a galaxy is an indicator of galactic star formation timescale. It is important for understanding the star formation history of early-type galaxies (ETGs) as their star formation processes have basically stopped. Using the model templates which are made by Vazdekis et al., we apply the pPXF based spectral fitting method to estimate the [$\alpha$/Fe] of 196 high signal-to-noise ratio ETGs from the MaNGA survey. The velocity dispersions within 1R$_e$ ($\sigma_{e}$) range from 27 to 270 km/s. We find a flat relation between the mean [$\alpha$/Fe] within the 1R$_e^{maj}$ ellipses and log($\sigma_{e}$), even if limiting to the massive sample with log($\sigma_{e}$/km s$^{-1}$)$>$1.9. However, the relation becomes positive after we exclude the Mg$_1$ feature in our fits, which agrees with the results from the previous work with other stellar population models, albeit with relatively large scatter. It indicates that the spectral fits with Vazdekis models could give basically the consistent predictions of [$\alpha$/Fe] with previous studies when the Mg$_b$ index is used, but do not work well at the Mg$_1$ band when their $\alpha$-enhanced version is employed in the metal-rich regime. We suggest avoiding this rather wide index, which covers 471\AA, as it might suffer from other effects such as flux-calibration issues. For reference, we also measure the stellar population radial gradients within 1R$_e^{maj}$ ellipses. Due to the low resolution of age estimations for old objects and the Mg$_1$ issue, the uncertainties of these gradients cannot be neglected.