paper

The puzzlingly small CaII triplet absorption in elliptical galaxies

arXiv:astro-ph/0209340 · doi:10.1086/344742

Abstract

We measure the central values (within Re/8) of the CaII triplet line indices CaT* and CaT and the Paschen index PaT at 8600 AA for a 93%-complete sample of 75 nearby early-type galaxies with BT<12 and Vgal<2490 km/s. We find that the values of CaT* are constant to within 5% over the range of central velocity dispersions 100<sigma<340 km/s, while the PaT (and CaT) values are mildly anti-correlated with sigma. Using simple and composite stellar population models, we show that: a) The measured CaT* and CaT are lower than expected from simple stellar population models (SSPs) with Salpeter initial mass functions (IMFs) and with metallicities and ages derived from optical Lick (Fe, Mg and Hbeta) indices. Uncertainties in the calibration, the fitting functions and the SSP modeling taken separately cannot explain the discrepancy. On the average, the observed PaT values are within the range allowed by the models and the large uncertainties in the fitting functions. b) The steepening of the IMF at low masses required to lower the CaT* and CaT indices to the observed values is incompatible with the measured FeH index at 9916 AA and the dynamical mass-to-light ratios of ellipticals. c) Composite stellar populations with a low-metallicity component reduce the disagreement, but rather artificial metallicity distributions are needed. Another explanation may be that calcium is indeed underabundant in ellipticals.

Accepted for publication in ApJL

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