Measuring Star Formation Histories, Distances, and Metallicities with Pixel Color-Magnitude Diagrams II: Applications to Nearby Elliptical Galaxies

Abstract

We present spatially-resolved measurements of star formation histories (SFHs), metallicities, and distances in three nearby elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31 derived using the pixel color-magnitude diagram (pCMD) technique. We compute pCMDs from archival $\text{HST}$ photometry of M87, M49, NGC 3377 and M31, and fit the data using the new code $\text{PCMDPy}$. We measure distances to each system that are accurate to $\sim 10\%$. The recovered non-parametric SFHs place reasonable ($\pm 1$ dex) constraints on the recent (< 2 Gyr) star formation in M31 and NGC 3377, both of which show evidence of inside-out growth. The SFHs in M87 and M49 are constrained only at the oldest ages. The pCMD technique is a promising new avenue for studying the evolutionary history of the nearby universe, and is highly complementary to existing stellar population modeling techniques.

18 pages, accepted for publication in ApJ

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