Colors of Dwarf Ellipticals from GALEX to WISE

Abstract

Multi-color photometry is presented for a sample of 60 dwarf ellipticals (dE) selected by morphology. The sample uses data from GALEX, SDSS and WISE to investigate the colors in filters NUV, ugri and W1 (3.4mum). We confirm the blueward shift in the color-magnitude relation for dwarf ellipticals, compared to CMR for bright ellipticals, as seen in previous studies. However, we find the deviation in color across the UV to near-IR for dE's is a strong signal of a younger age for dwarf ellipticals, one that indicates decreasing mean age with lower stellar mass. Lower mass dE's are found to have mean ages of 4 Gyrs and mean [Fe/H] values of -1.2. Age and metallicity increase to the most massive dE's with mean ages similar to normal ellipticals (12 Gyrs) and their lowest metallicities ([Fe/H] = -0.3). Deduced initial star formation rates for dE's, combined with their current metallicities and central stellar densities, suggests a connection between field LSB dwarfs and cluster dE's, where the cluster environment halts star formation for dE's triggering a separate evolutionary path.

arXiv comment15 pages, 9 figure, accepted for AJ. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1609.07500

References in corpus (64)

• The Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE): Mission Description and Initial On-orbit Performance
• The epochs of early-type galaxy formation as a function of environment
• New Insight on Galaxy Formation and Evolution from Keck Spectroscopy of the Hawaii Deep Fields
• The ages and metallicities of galaxies in the local universe
• SPARC: Mass Models for 175 Disk Galaxies with Spitzer Photometry and Accurate Rotation Curves
• The Atlas3D project - XX. Mass-size and mass-sigma distributions of early-type galaxies: bulge fraction drives kinematics, mass-to-light ratio, molecular gas fraction and stellar initial mass function
• The Stellar Population Histories of Early-Type Galaxies. II. Controlling Parameters of the Stellar Populations
• The Mass Assembly History of Field Galaxies: Detection of an Evolving Mass Limit for Star Forming Galaxies
• Strangulation as the primary mechanism for shutting down star formation in galaxies
• Formation of early-type galaxies from cosmological initial conditions
• The Many Manifestations of Downsizing: Hierarchical Galaxy Formation Models confront Observations
• The K20 survey. VI. The Distribution of the Stellar Masses in Galaxies up to z~2
• Early-Type Galaxy Archeology: Ages, Abundance Ratios, and Effective Temperatures from Full-Spectrum Fitting
• NOAO Fundamental Plane Survey -- II. Age and Metallicity along the Red Sequence
• The effect of environment on the UV colour-magnitude relation of early-type galaxies
• The H alpha Galaxy Survey I. The galaxy sample, H alpha narrow-band observations and star formation parameters for 334 galaxies
• Early-type galaxies in the SDSS. IV. Colors and chemical evolution
• Colors, magnitudes and velocity dispersions in early-type galaxies: Implications for galaxy ages and metallicities
• Measuring Ages and Elemental Abundances from Unresolved Stellar Populations: Fe, Mg, C, N, and Ca
• Dissecting the Red Sequence--I. Star Formation Histories of Quiescent Galaxies: The Color-Magnitude vs. the Color-Sigma Relation
• Chemical element ratios of SDSS early-type galaxies
• The M31 globular cluster system: ugriz and K-band photometry and structural parameters
• The Star Formation Demographics of Galaxies in the Local Volume
• Curvature in the color-magnitude relation but not in color-sigma: Major dry mergers at M* > 2 x 10^11 Msun?
• Virgo cluster early-type dwarf galaxies with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. IV. The color-magnitude relation
• The different star-formation histories of blue and red spiral and elliptical galaxies
• The ages, metallicities and star formation histories of early-type galaxies in SDSS
• The Star Forming Main Sequence of Dwarf Low Surface Brightness Galaxies
• On the Origin of the UV Upturn in Elliptical Galaxies. II. Test of the HB Hypothesis
• An updated survey of globular clusters in M 31. III. A spectroscopic metallicity scale for the Revised Bologna Catalog
• On the Color Magnitude Relation of Early-type Galaxies
• Stellar Populations and the Star Formation Histories of LSB Galaxies: III. Stellar Population Models
• Dissecting the Red Sequence: The Bulge and Disc Colours of Early-Type Galaxies in the Coma Cluster
• Deep Luminosity Functions and Colour-Magnitude Relations for Cluster Galaxies at 0.2 < z < 0.6
• Color-Magnitude Diagrams of Resolved Stars in Virgo Cluster Dwarf Galaxies
• The Colours of Elliptical galaxies
• The Ages of Dwarf Ellipticals
• Individual Alpha Elements, C, N, and Ba in Early Type Galaxies
• The Star Formation History of M32
• The Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS). XXIV. The Red Sequence to $\sim$10${}^6$ L${}_{\odot }$ and Comparisons with Galaxy Formation Models
• The Structure of Galaxies: I. Surface Photometry Techniques
• HST/ACS Direct Ages of the Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies NGC 147 and NGC 185
• Abundance ratios and IMF slope in the dwarf elliptical galaxy NGC~1396 with MUSE
• The hELENa project - I. Stellar populations of early-type galaxies linked with local environment and galaxy mass
• Stellar Populations and the Star Formation Histories of LSB Galaxies: I. Optical and H-alpha Imaging
• Age and metallicity gradients in fossil ellipticals
• The Deepest HST Color-Magnitude Diagram of M32: Evidence for Intermediate-Age Populations
• Baryons in Dark Matter Halos
• An extensive catalogue of early-type galaxies in the nearby Universe
• Dissecting the Red Sequence. IV. The Role of Truncation in the Two-Dimensional Family of Early-Type Galaxy Star Formation Histories
• Colors of Ellipticals from GALEX to Spitzer
• The Next Generation Virgo cluster Survey (NGVS). XXV. Fiducial panchromatic colors of Virgo core globular clusters and their comparison to model predictions
• The Age of Cluster Galaxies from Continuum Colors
• The GALEX/S4G UV-IR color-color diagram: Catching spiral galaxies away from the Blue Sequence
• A Virtual Observatory Census to Address Dwarfs Origins. AVOCADO - I. Science goals, sample selection and analysis tools
• About the linearity of the color-magnitude relation of early-type galaxies in the Virgo cluster
• The Age of Ellipticals and the Color-Magnitude Relation
• Stellar Populations and the Star Formation Histories of LSB Galaxies: V. WFC3 Color-Magnitude Diagrams
• The Structure of Galaxies: II. Fitting Functions and Scaling Relations for Ellipticals
• The build-up of the red sequence in the Hercules cluster
• The Structure of Galaxies: III. Two Structural Families of Ellipticals
• ARCHANGEL Galaxy Photometry System
• On the Dichotomy between Normal and Dwarf Ellipticals
• The [alpha/Fe] Ratios in Dwarf Galaxies: Evidence for a Non-universal Stellar Initial Mass Function?

Cited by in corpus (4)

• The Fornax Deep Survey (FDS) with VST. VI. Optical properties of the dwarf galaxies in the Fornax cluster
• H-$\alpha$ emission in the nebular spectrum of the Type Ia supernova ASASSN-18tb
• Cold gas disks in main-sequence galaxies at cosmic noon: Low turbulence, flat rotation curves, and disk-halo degeneracy
• Young stellar populations in early-type dwarf galaxies; occurrence, radial extent and scaling relations