Observed versus modelled u,g,r,i,z-band photometry of local galaxies - Evaluation of model performance

Abstract

We test how well available stellar population models can reproduce observed u,g,r,i,z-band photometry of the local galaxy population (0.02<=z<=0.03) as probed by the SDSS. Our study is conducted from the perspective of a user of the models, who has observational data in hand and seeks to convert them into physical quantities. Stellar population models for galaxies are created by synthesizing star formations histories and chemical enrichments using single stellar populations from several groups (Starburst99, GALAXEV, Maraston2005, GALEV). The role of dust is addressed through a simplistic, but observationally motivated, dust model that couples the amplitude of the extinction to the star formation history, metallicity and the viewing angle. Moreover, the influence of emission lines is considered (for the subset of models for which this component is included). The performance of the models is investigated by: 1) comparing their prediction with the observed galaxy population in the SDSS using the (u-g)-(r-i) and (g-r)-(i-z) color planes, 2) comparing predicted stellar mass and luminosity weighted ages and metallicities, specific star formation rates, mass to light ratios and total extinctions with literature values from studies based on spectroscopy. Strong differences between the various models are seen, with several models occupying regions in the color-color diagrams where no galaxies are observed. We would therefore like to emphasize the importance of the choice of model. Using our preferred model we find that the star formation history, metallicity and also dust content can be constrained over a large part of the parameter space through the use of u,g,r,i,z-band photometry. However, strong local degeneracies are present due to overlap of models with high and low extinction in certain parts of color space.

MNRAS accepted. 18 pages, incl. 15 figures

References in corpus (18)

• The propagation of uncertainties in stellar population synthesis modeling I: The relevance of uncertain aspects of stellar evolution and the IMF to the derived physical properties of galaxies
• K-corrections and filter transformations in the ultraviolet, optical, and near infrared
• UV Star Formation Rates in the Local Universe
• The hierarchical formation of the brightest cluster galaxies
• A simple model to interpret the ultraviolet, optical and infrared emission from galaxies
• Observational constraints on Cosmic Reionization
• Galaxy Zoo 1 : Data Release of Morphological Classifications for nearly 900,000 galaxies
• Galaxy Zoo: the dependence of morphology and colour on environment
• Star formation efficiency in galaxy interactions and mergers: a statistical study
• Evolution of asymptotic giant branch stars I. Updated synthetic TP-AGB models and their basic calibration
• Metallicity Effects on Dust Properties in Starbursting Galaxies
• The star formation histories of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• GALEV evolutionary synthesis models - I. Code, input physics and web-interface
• The luminosities, sizes and velocity dispersions of Brightest Cluster Galaxies: Implications for formation history
• Modeling the color evolution of luminous red galaxies - improvements with empirical stellar spectra
• Virgo cluster early-type dwarf galaxies with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. III. Subpopulations: distributions, shapes, origins
• The Cosmic Evolution of Metallicity from the SDSS Fossil Record
• Virgo cluster early-type dwarf galaxies with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. IV. The color-magnitude relation

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Reconstructing the Subsurface Three-Dimensional Magnetic Structure of A Solar Active Region Using SDO/HMI Observations
• SNe Ia host galaxy properties from Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II spectroscopy
• The Next Generation Fornax Survey (NGFS): IV. Mass and Age Bimodality of Nuclear Clusters in the Fornax Core Region
• Dwarf galaxy populations in present-day galaxy clusters - II. The history of early-type and late-type dwarfs
• GHOST: Using Only Host Galaxy Information to Accurately Associate and Distinguish Supernovae
• On the recovery of galaxy properties from SED fitting solutions
• I. Apples to apples $A^2$: realistic galaxy simulated catalogs and photometric redshift predictions for next-generation surveys
• Colors of Ellipticals from GALEX to Spitzer
• Young, metal-enriched cores in early-type dwarf galaxies in the Virgo cluster based on colour gradients
• Optical-Near Infrared Color Gradients And Merging History Of Elliptical Galaxies
• An Accurate Cluster Selection Function for the J-PAS Narrow-Band wide-field survey
• Galaxy properties from J-PAS narrow-band photometry
• Estimation of Photometric Redshifts. II. Identification of Out-of-Distribution Data with Neural Networks