Early-type galaxies in the Coma cluster a new piece in the calcium puzzle.pdf

a r X i v : a s t r o - p h / 0 4 0 9 3 0 1 v 1 1 3 S e p 2 0 0 4 Preprint typeset using LATEX style emulateapj v. 11/12/01 EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES IN THE COMA CLUSTER: A NEW PIECE IN THE CALCIUM PUZZLE Cenarro A. J.1, Sa?nchez–Bla?zquez P., Cardiel N.2, and Gorgas J. Departamento de Astrof??sica, Facultad de F??sicas, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain cen@astrax.fis.ucm.es ABSTRACT We present measurements of the Ca ii triplet and the Ca4227 Lick-index for a sample of early-type galaxies in the Coma cluster, deriving, for the first time, their corresponding relationships with velocity dispersion. Compared with a similar subsample of ellipticals in the field, Coma galaxies with velocity dispersions in the range ≈ 180 ? 270 kms?1 exhibit significant differences in the strengths of the Ca features, suggesting an influence of the environment on the star formation histories of these galaxies. We argue that the main scenarios previously proposed to explain the relatively low Ca ii triplet of galaxies are not able by themselves to simultaneously reconcile the strengths of the two Ca indices in both environments. Subject headings: galaxies: evolution — galaxies: clusters — galaxies: formation — galaxies: abundances — galaxies: stellar content 1. introduction The near-infrared (nIR) Ca ii triplet constitutes the strongest absorption feature in the integrated spectra around 8600 A? of relatively old stellar populations. Given its well-known capability to derive the metallicity of galac- tic globular clusters (Armandroff Zinn 1988, hereafter A88; Rutledge, Hesser Stetson 1997), this spectral fea- ture was considered a useful tool to study the stellar popu- lations of normal galaxies. However, the first observational work (Cohen 1979; Bica Alloin 1987; Terlevich, D??az Terlevich 1990; Houdashelt 1995) reported only small differences among the integrated Ca ii triplet of several types of galaxies, remarkably at variance with the trends found when using