The UV Upturn in Elliptical galaxies and Environmental Effects

Abstract

It is suspected that the ultraviolet (UV) upturn phenomenon in elliptical galaxies and extended horizontal-branch stars in globular clusters have a common origin. An extremely high abundance of helium (Y~0.4) allows for a working hypothesis, but its origin is unclear. Peng & Nagai (2009) proposed that primordial helium sedimentation in dark haloes over cosmic timescales may lead to extreme helium abundances in galaxy cluster centers. In this scenario UV upturn should be restricted to brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) only. This is a clear and testable prediction. We present tests of this hypothesis using galaxy clusters from Yoon et al. (2008) that were detected by both the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the Galaxy Evolution Explorer Medium Imaging Survey. Using a new UV classification scheme based on far-UV, near-UV, and optical photometry we found only 5% of cluster elliptical galaxies show a UV upturn, while 27% and 68% are classified as "recent star-formation" and "UV-weak" ellipticals, respectively. The data reveal a modest positive dependence of the UV upturn fraction on galaxy velocity dispersion, which is in agreement with the earlier findings of Burstein et al. (1988) and possibly with the helium sedimentation theory. However, we do not see any dependency on rank or luminosity of galaxies. Besides, BCGs do not show any marked difference in UV upturn fraction or strength, which is inconsistent with the prediction. We conclude that the aforementioned helium sedimentation theory and its inferred environmental effects are not supported by the available data.

Accepted for publication in ApJS. 8 pages, 9 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (10)

• Formation and Dynamical Evolution of Multiple Stellar Generations in Globular Clusters
• A binary model for the UV-upturn of elliptical galaxies (MNRAS version)
• Suppression of star formation in early-type galaxies by feedback from supermassive black holes
• The evolution of two stellar populations in globular clusters I. The dynamical mixing timescale
• A Spectro-photometric Search for Galaxy Clusters in SDSS
• UV Bright Globular Clusters in M87: More Evidence for Super-helium-rich Stellar Populations?
• The Look-back Time Evolution of Far-Ultraviolet Flux from the Brightest Cluster Elliptical Galaxies at z < 0.2
• The SAURON project - XVIII. The integrated UV-linestrength relations of early-type galaxies
• Testing the AGB Scenario as the Origin of the Extreme-Helium Population in omega Centauri
• First stars as a possible origin for the helium-rich population in omega Centauri

Cited by in corpus (55)

• UV-extended E-MILES stellar population models: young components in massive early-type galaxies
• The Herschel Reference Survey: Dust in Early-Type Galaxies and Across the Hubble Sequence
• Setting the Stage for Cosmic Chronometers. I. Assessing the Impact of Young Stellar Populations on Hubble Parameter Measurements
• Post-merger Signatures of Red-sequence Galaxies in Rich Abell Clusters at $z\lesssim 0.1$
• The GALEX/S4G Surface Brightness and Color Profiles Catalog - I. Surface Photometry and Color Gradients of Galaxies
• Detection of Ultraviolet Halos around Highly Inclined Galaxies
• Stellar content of extremely red quiescent galaxies at z>2
• The distribution of star formation in galactic bars as seen with H$\alpha$ and stacked GALEX UV imaging
• On the nature of sodium excess objects. I. Data and observed trends
• What drives the ultra-violet colours of passive galaxies?
• Impact of young stellar components on quiescent galaxies: deconstructing cosmic chronometers
• Yonsei evolutionary population synthesis (YEPS). II. Spectro-photometric evolution of helium-enhanced stellar populations
• Constraining star formation rates in cool-core brightest cluster galaxies
• Deep Hubble Space Telescope Observations of GW170817: Complete Light Curves and the Properties of the Galaxy Merger of NGC 4993
• Colors of Ellipticals from GALEX to Spitzer
• Modelling the UV spectrum of SDSS-III/BOSS galaxies: hints towards the detection of the UV upturn at high-z
• Stellar lifetime and ultraviolet properties of the old metal-rich Galactic open cluster NGC6791: a pathway to understand the UV upturn of elliptical galaxies
• The Star Formation Reference Survey III: A Multi-wavelength View of Star Formation in Nearby Galaxies
• Binary stars and the UVX in early type galaxies
• UV-bright nearby early type galaxies observed in the mid-infrared: evidence for a multi-stage formation history by way of WISE and GALEX imaging
• Recent galaxy mergers and residual star formation of red sequence galaxies in galaxy clusters
• The (black hole mass)-(color) relations for early- and late-type galaxies: red and blue sequences
• Observational Evidence for Enhanced Black Hole Accretion in Giant Elliptical Galaxies
• Ionized gas disks in elliptical and S0 galaxies at $z<1$
• Environments and Morphologies of Red Sequence Galaxies with Residual Star Formation in Massive Clusters
• The GALEX Ultraviolet Virgo Cluster Survey (GUViCS). VII.: BCG UV upturn and the FUV-NUV color up to redshift 0.35
• Clues on the history of early-type galaxies from SDSS spectra and GALEX photometry
• UV SEDs of early-type cluster galaxies: A new look at the UV upturn
• The rise and fall of the UV upturn: $z=0.3,0.55$ and $0.7$
• Investigating early-type galaxy evolution with a multiwavelength approach. II. The UV structure of 11 galaxies with Swift-UVOT
• NUV signatures of environment driven galaxy quenching in SDSS groups
• The SAURON project-XXI. The spatially-resolved UV-line strength relations of early-type galaxies
• The horizontal branch morphology of M31 globular clusters. Extreme second parameter effect in outer halo clusters
• The effect of second generation populations on the integrated colors of metal-rich globular clusters in early-type galaxies
• FUV line emission, gas kinematics, and discovery of [Fe XXI] $\lambda$1354.1 in the sightline towards a filament in M87
• Galaxy evolution in groups. NGC 3447/NGC 3447A: the odd couple in LGG 225
• UV bright red-sequence galaxies: how do UV upturn systems evolve in redshift and stellar mass?
• Galaxy evolution in nearby galaxy groups. III. A GALEX view of NGC 5846, the largest group in the local universe
• Surface Brightness Fluctuation spectra to constrain stellar population properties
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): Defining Passive Galaxy Samples and Searching for the UV Upturn
• A possible physical connection between helium-rich stellar populations of massive globular clusters and the UV upturn of galactic spheroids
• Environmental Effects on the UV Upturn in Local Clusters of Galaxies
• Ultraviolet and X-ray Properties of Coma's Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies
• Investigating early-type galaxy evolution with a multi-wavelength approach. III. Insights from SPH simulations with chemo-photometric implementation
• Hubble Space Telescope FUV observations of M31's globular clusters suggest a spatially homogeneous helium-enriched sub population
• A Comparison of the UV and HI Properties of the Extended UV (XUV) Disk Galaxies NGC 2541, NGC 5832 and ESO406-042
• Early-type galaxies at intermediate redshift observed with HST WFC3: perspectives on recent star-formation
• Measuring the Total Ultraviolet Light from Galaxy Clusters at z=0.5-1.6: The Balance of Obscured and Unobscured Star-Formation
• UV upturn versus UV weak galaxies: differences and similarities of their stellar populations unveiled by a de-biased sample
• Investigating the role of bars in quenching star formation using spatially resolved UV-optical colour maps
• A multi-wavelength study of the evolution of Early-Type Galaxies in Groups: the ultraviolet view
• Central star formation in an early-type galaxy I~Zw~81 in the Bootes void
• Multiple populations within globular clusters in Early-type galaxies Exploring their effect on stellar initial mass function estimates
• Ultraviolet color-color relation of early-type galaxies at 0.05 < z < 0.12
• Two categories of UV-upturn galaxies revealed by semi-analytic models