Bibcode
Ruiz-Lara, T.; Beasley, M. A.; Falcón-Barroso, J.; Román, J.; Pinna, F.; Brook, C.; Di Cintio, A.; Martín-Navarro, I.; Trujillo, I.; Vazdekis, A.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 478, Issue 2, p.2034-2045
Advertised on:
8
2018
Citations
68
Refereed citations
60
Description
Understanding the peculiar properties of ultra-diffuse galaxies (UDGs)
via spectroscopic analysis is a challenging task requiring very deep
observations and exquisite data reduction. In this work, we perform one
of the most complete characterizations of the stellar component of UDGs
to date using deep optical spectroscopic data from OSIRIS at Gran
Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC). We measure radial and rotation velocities,
star formation histories (SFHs), and mean population parameters, such as
ages and metallicities, for a sample of five UDG candidates in the Coma
cluster. From the radial velocities, we confirm the Coma membership of
these galaxies. We find that their rotation properties, if detected at
all, are compatible with dwarf-like galaxies. The SFHs of the UDG are
dominated by old (˜7 Gyr), metal-poor ([M/H] ˜ -1.1),and
α-enhanced ([Mg/Fe] ˜ 0.4) populations followed by a smooth
or episodic decline that halted ˜2 Gyr ago, possibly a sign of
cluster-induced quenching. We find no obvious correlation between
individual SFH shapes and any UDG morphological properties. The
recovered stellar properties for UDGs are similar to those found for DDO
44, a local UDG analogue resolved into stars. We conclude that the UDGs
in our sample are extended dwarfs whose properties are likely the
outcome of both internal processes, such as bursty SFHs and/or high-spin
haloes, as well as environmental effects within the Coma cluster.
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