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The Nearest Giant Ellipticals: Rosetta Stones or Fool’s Gold?

The Nearest Giant Ellipticals: Rosetta Stones or Fool’s Gold?. A hypothesis or theory is clear, decisive, and positive, but it is believed by no one but the man who created it.

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The Nearest Giant Ellipticals: Rosetta Stones or Fool’s Gold?

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  1. The Nearest Giant Ellipticals: Rosetta Stones or Fool’s Gold? A hypothesis or theory is clear, decisive, and positive, but it is believed by no one but the man who created it. Experimental findings, on the other hand, are messy, inexact things which are believed by everyone except the man who did that work. Harlow Shapley

  2. NGC 5128 (Centaurus group) W.E.H. SDSS NGC 3377 (Leo group) NGC 3379 (Leo group)

  3. Interpolate within RGB tracks (calibrated onto the Milky Way globular cluster grid) Fast, efficient way to derive first-order Metallicity Distribution Function In these three galaxies …. Old halo and bulge RGB stars are readily accessible with HST imaging (V,I) photometry works well (high metallicity sensitivity and takes full advantage of the optical cameras)

  4. NGC 5128 Unique chance to study a halo population in an E/S0 giant at close range d = 3.8 Mpc from several standard candles: TRGB, PNLF, SBF, Cepheids Metallicity Age

  5. “20 kpc field” Allocated in Cycle 5, mid-1994 Exposures taken August 1997! Previous work: Harris, Harris, & Poole 1999, AJ 117, 855 Harris, Poole, & Harris 1998, AJ 116, 2866

  6. More fields …. 7’ 8.0 kpc = 1.4 Reff 18’ 20 kpc = 3.7 Reff 27’ 30 kpc = 5.4 Reff 33’ 37 kpc = 6.7 Reff deepest, with ACS

  7. Peng, Ford & Freeman 2002 Malin 1983 More fields …. 7’ 8.0 kpc = 1.4 Reff 18’ 20 kpc = 3.7 Reff 27’ 30 kpc = 5.4 Reff 33’ 37 kpc = 6.7 Reff

  8. Rejkuba, Greggio, Harris, Harris & Peng 2005 Metal-rich all the way out! Harris & Harris 2000, 2002

  9. Mean age = 8.5 Gy

  10. NGC 3379 MV = -20.9 38.5 ksec V, 22.3 ksec I field center at 33 kpc (10.3  13.6 Reff ) Harris, Harris, Layden & Stetson 2007, AJ in press Harris, Harris, Layden & Wehner 2007, submitted Leo Group ellipticals: d = 10.5 Mpc NGC 3377 MV = -19.9 38.5 ksec V, 22.3 ksec I field center at 12 kpc (1.5  5.2 Reff )

  11. NGC 3377

  12. Entirely old, simple formation history, intermediate metallicity NGC 3377 No trace of metallicity gradient!

  13. Textbook standard giant elliptical! “A walking advertisement for the deVaucouleurs law” (Statler & Smecker-Hane 1999) NICMOS fields Gregg et al. (2004) – old and high-Z DeVaucouleurs & Capaccioli 1979 (“note close agreement with r1/4 law”) NGC 3379 ACS

  14. NGC 3379 ACS

  15. V filter cutoff NGC 3379 2-stage chemical evolution Are we seeing the “true” metal-poor halo for Z < 0.2 ?

  16. -2.4 -5.6 Are we seeing the region of transition to the classic metal-poor halo?

  17. Kalirai et al. 2006 && M31 halo Z-gradient Are we seeing the region of transition to the classic metal-poor halo? Why didn’t we see it in the others? Are we looking at two distinct components ?? (bulge + halo) NGC 3377 1.5  5.2 Reff NGC 3379 10.3  13.6 Reff NGC 5128 1.4  6.7 Reff Should we expect to find the transition starting routinely around 12 Reff ? Metal-poor past R > 10 Reff

  18. Kalirai et al. 2006 && Williams et al. 2007 Virgo ICM stars Metal-poor past R > 10 Reff

  19. Increasing luminosity of host galaxy NGC 5128 Cycle 15 – ACS target fields at R = 70, 110, 140 kpc (13, 20, 25 Reff)

  20. What about the globular cluster population? N5128 permits detailed comparison VERY DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH: - Finding them in the first place is hard. Field is at intermediate latitude (b = 19o), thus field contamination by both foreground stars and faint background galaxies is very significant - Low SN = 2 (1500 GC’s total), thus “signal” is low - Nearby (D = 4 Mpc), thus GCS is very dilute against the field - Observing runs are always plagued by bad weather, bad seeing, or instrument failure [this includes HST]

  21. G.Harris et al. 2004 CMT1 database ~450 clusters now known, 340 with radial velocities Woodley et al. 2007, AJ, in press: kinematics & dynamics Radial velocity measurements Hi-res imaging (HST, Gemini, VLT, Magellan)

  22. Metallicity distribution function (C-T1)0 metallicity

  23. The new “specific frequency problem” ! SN = 4.2 +- 0.6 SN = 0.85 +- 0.12 Metallicity distribution function

  24. SN = 4.2 +- 0.6 SN = 0.85 +- 0.12 • Probably a common feature of gE galaxies. • Assuming the low-metallicity clusters formed in massive pregalactic dwarfs, did they form – • preferentially early relative to the field stars, followed by truncation of star formation? • at ~5 x higher efficiency? Harris & Harris 2002 Beasley et al. 2002 Jordan et al. 2004 Rhode et al. 2005 Major star formation phase of the gE

  25. Highest-metallicity GCs appear 6-8 Gy old. cf. Rejkuba && halo-star mean age of 8.5 Gy But -- Great majority > 10 Gy Age estimates from Lick indices: Beasley et al. 2007 courtesy Thomas Puzia

  26. Woodley, Harris, Harris, Geisler, Gomez, & Puzia 2007 Gemini GMOS study of inner GC population Preliminary !!

  27. N5128: GC kinematics Woodley et al. 2007, astro-ph/0704.1189 Blue, MPRed, MR

  28. NGC 3379 Romanowsky et al. 2003 Bergond et al. 2006 NGC 5128 GCS PNe Woodley et al. 2007

  29. Dynamical connection of a giant central galaxy with its surroundings NGC 5128: Woodley 2006, AJ 132, 2424 M87: Cote et al. 2001

  30. There appears to be good reason to think that the metal-rich globular clusters and the main population of stars in E galaxies formed together and We may now have reason to think that the metal-poor globular clusters and the (more elusive) metal-poor halo stars formed together as well (but in a different ratio). But are these generalizations risky? Prospects for continuing the halo-star studies are great if we can get HST back with WFC3 (or ACS) … more extended coverage of N5128, 3379, plus Virgo, Fornax E’s and many others. Stellar populations are what happen when galaxy populations run out !

  31. There appears to be good reason to think that the metal-rich globular clusters and the main population of stars in E galaxies formed together and We may now have reason to think that the metal-poor globular clusters and the (more elusive) metal-poor halo stars formed together as well (but in a different ratio). All depends on keeping the eye steadily fixed on the facts of nature, and so receiving their images as they are. For God forbid that we should give out a dream of our own imagination for a pattern of the world. Francis Bacon (1623)

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