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Self-similarity in the chemical evolution of galaxies and the delay-time distribution of SNe Ia

Walcher, CJ, Yates, RM, Minchev, I, Chiappini, C, Bergemann, M, Bruzual, G, Charlot, S, Coelho, PRT, Gallazzi, A and Martig, M (2016) Self-similarity in the chemical evolution of galaxies and the delay-time distribution of SNe Ia. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 594. ISSN 1432-0746

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Abstract

Recent improvements in the age dating of stellar populations and single stars allow us to study the ages and abundance of stars and galaxies with unprecedented accuracy. We here compare the relation between age and α-element abundances for stars in the solar neighborhood to that of local, early-type galaxies. We find these two relations to be very similar. Both fall into two regimes with a shallow slope for ages younger than ~9 Gyr and a steeper slope for ages older than that value. This quantitative similarity seems surprising because of the different types of galaxies and scales involved. For the sample of early-type galaxies we also show that the data are inconsistent with literature delay-time distributions of either single- or double-Gaussian shape. The data are consistent with a power-law delay-time distribution. We thus confirm that the delay-time distribution inferred for the Milky Way from chemical evolution arguments must also apply to massive early-type galaxies. We also offer a tentative explanation for the seeming universality of the age-[α/Fe] relation: it is the manifestation of averaging different stellar populations with varying chemical evolution histories.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: 0201 Astronomical And Space Sciences
Subjects: Q Science > QB Astronomy
Q Science > QC Physics
Q Science > QD Chemistry
Divisions: Astrophysics Research Institute
Publisher: EDP Sciences
Related URLs:
Date Deposited: 16 Feb 2018 12:25
Last Modified: 04 Sep 2021 03:12
DOI or ID number: 10.1051/0004-6361/201528019
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/8048
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