Early-type galaxy star formation histories in different environments

Abstract

We use very high signal-to-noise ratio stacked spectra of ∼29 000 nearby quiescent early-type galaxies (ETGs) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey to investigate variations in their star formation histories (SFHs) with environment at fixed position along and perpendicular to the Fundamental Plane. We define three classifications of local group environment based on the ‘identities’ of galaxies within their dark matter haloes: central ‘Brightest Group Galaxies’ (BGGs); Satellites; and Isolateds (those ‘most massive’ in a dark matter halo with no Satellites). We find that the SFHs of quiescent ETGs are almost entirely determined by their structural parameters σ and ΔIe. Any variation with local group environment at fixed structure is only slight: Satellites have the oldest stellar populations, 0.02 dex older than BGGs and 0.04 dex older than Isolateds; differences in Fe enrichment with local group environment are consistent with zero (<2σ); there are no differences in Mg enhancement between BGGs, Isolateds, and Satellites. Our observation that, to zeroth-order, the SFHs of quiescent ETGs are fully captured by their structures places important qualitative constraints on the degree to which late-time evolutionary processes (those which occur after a galaxy's initial formation and main star-forming lifetime) can alter their SFHs/structures.