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44 - Chemical-evolution models of ellipticals and bulges

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2009

F. Matteucci
Affiliation:
Departimento di Astronomia, Università di Trieste, Via G. B. Tiepolo 11, 34100 Trieste, Italy
Garik Israelian
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Tenerife
Georges Meynet
Affiliation:
Geneva Observatory
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Summary

We review some of the models of chemical evolution of ellipticals and bulges of spirals. In particular, we focus on the star-formation histories of ellipticals and their influence on chemical properties such as [α/Fe] versus [Fe/H], galactic mass and visual magnitudes. By comparing models with observational properties, we can constrain the timescales for the formation of these galaxies. The observational properties of stellar populations suggest that the more-massive ellipticals formed on a shorter timescale than less-massive ones, in the sense that both the star-formation rate and the mass-assembly rate, strictly linked properties, were greater for the most-massive objects. Observational properties of true bulges seem to suggest that they are very similar to ellipticals and that they formed on a very short timescale: for the bulge of the Milky Way we suggest a timescale of 0.1 Gyr. This leads us to conclude that the bulge evolved in a quite independent way from the Galactic disk.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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