The effect of Helium-enhanced stellar populations on the ultraviolet upturn phenomenon of early-type galaxies

Abstract

AbstractWe present new population synthesis models (Chung et al.2011) for quiescent early-type galaxies (ETGs) with UV-upturn phenomenon using relatively metal-poor and helium-enhanced subpopulations in the model. We find that the presence of helium-enhanced subpopulations in ETGs can naturally reproduce the strong UV-upturns observed in giant elliptical galaxies (Figure 1. left panel), without invoking unrealistically old ages (Park & Lee 1997). Our models with helium-enhanced subpopulations also predict that the well-known Burstein relation can be explained by the fraction of helium-enhanced subpopulation, the mean age, and the mean metallicity of the underlying stellar populations (Figure 1. right panel).