Modeling the Ages and Chemical Abundances of Elliptical Galaxies

Abstract Spectroscopic studies of elliptical galaxies show that their stellar population ages, mean metallicity, and α enhancement traced by [Mg/Fe] all increase with galaxy stellar mass or velocity dispersion. We use one-zone galactic chemical evolution (GCE) models with a flexible star formation history (SFH) to model the age, [Mg/H], and [Mg/Fe] inferred from simple stellar population (SSP) fits to observed ellipticals at z ∼ 0 and z ∼ 0.7. We show that an SSP fit to the spectrum computed from a full GCE model gives ages and abundances close to the light-weighted, logarithmically averaged values of the composite stellar population, 〈age〉, 〈[Mg/H]〉, and 〈[Mg/Fe]〉. With supernova Mg and Fe yields fixed to values motivated by Milky Way stellar populations, we find that predicted 〈[Mg/H]〉–〈age〉 and 〈[Mg/Fe]〉–〈age〉 relations are surprisingly insensitive to SFH parameters: Older galaxies have higher 〈[Mg/Fe]〉, but the detailed form of the SFH has limited impact. The star formation efficiency (SFE) and outflow efficiency affect the early and late evolution of 〈[Mg/H]〉, respectively; explaining observed trends requires higher SFE and lower outflows in more massive galaxies. With core-collapse supernova yields calibrated to the plateau [Mg/Fe] cc ≈ 0.45 observed in many Milky Way studies, our models underpredict the observed 〈[Mg/Fe]〉 ratios of ellipticals by 0.05–0.1 dex. Increasing the core-collapse yield ratio to [Mg/Fe] cc = 0.55 improves the agreement, though the models remain below the data. We discuss potential resolutions of this discrepancy, including the possibility that many ellipticals terminate their star formation with a self-enriching, terminating burst that reduces the light-weighted age and boosts 〈[Mg/Fe]〉.