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The stellar initial mass function (IMF) is one of the fundamental pillars in studies of stellar populations. It is the mass distribution of stars at birth, and it is traditionally assumed to be universal, adopting generic functions constrained by resolved (i.e. nearby) stellar populations (e.g., Salpeter 1955; Kroupa 2001; Chabrier 2003). However, for the vast majority of cases, stars are not resolved in galaxies. Therefore, the interpretation of the photo-spectroscopic observables is complicated by the many degeneracies present between the properties of the unresolved stellar populations, including IMF, age distribution, and chemical composition. The overall good match of the photometric and spectroscopic observations of galaxies with population synthesis models, adopting standard IMF choices, made this issue a relatively unimportant one for a number of years. However, improved models and observations have opened the door to constraints on the IMF in unresolved stellar populations via gravity-sensitive spectral features. At present, there is significant evidence of a non-universal IMF in early-type galaxies (ETGs), with a trend towards a dwarf-enriched distribution in the most massive systems (see, e.g., van Dokkum & Conroy 2010; Ferreras et al. 2013; La Barbera et al. 2013). Dynamical and strong-lensing constraints of the stellar M/L in similar systems give similar results, with heavier M/L in the most massive ETGs (see, e.g., Cappellari et al. 2012; Posacki et al. 2015). Although the interpretation of the results is still open to discussion (e.g., Smith 2014; La Barbera 2015), one should consider the consequences of such a bottom-heavy IMF in massive galaxies.

We describe 2DPHOT, a general-purpose analysis environment for source detection and analysis in deep wide-field images. 2DPHOT is an automated tool to obtain both integrated and surface photometry of galaxies in an image, to perform reliable star-galaxy separation with accurate estimates of contamination at faint flux levels, and to estimate completeness of the image catalog. We describe the analysis strategy on which 2DPHOT is based, and provide a detailed description of the different algorithms implemented in the package. This new environment is intended as a dedicated tool to process the wealth of data from wide-field imaging surveys. To this end, the package is complemented by 2DGUI, an environment that allows multiple processing of data using a range of computing architectures.

We present spherical, nonrotating, isotropic models of early-type galaxies with stellar and dark-matter components both described by deprojected Sérsic density profiles and prove that they represent physically admissible stable systems. Using empirical correlations and recent results of N N -body simulations, all the free parameters of the models are expressed as functions of one single quantity: the total ( B B -band) luminosity of the stellar component. We analyze how to perform discrete N N -body realizations of Sérsic models. To this end, an optimal smoothing length is derived, defined as the softening parameter minimizing the error on the gravitational potential for the deprojected Sérsic model. It is shown to depend on the Sérsic index n n and on the number of particles of the N N -body realization. A software code allowing the computations of the relevant quantities of one- and two-component Sérsic models is provided. Both the code and the results of the present work are primarily intended as tools to perform N N -body simulations of early-type galaxies, where the structural nonhomology of these systems (i.e., the variation of the shape parameter along the galaxy sequence) might be taken into account.

We studied ~ 2 deg2 region in the Shapley Supercluster (SSC) core at z~0.05 in two bands (B and R). By studying the galaxy luminosity function (LF) and the colour distribution of galaxies we find that processes directly related to the supercluster environment are responsible for transforming faint galaxies, rather than galaxy merging.

The star-formation histories, masses and structural properties of galaxies are strongly dependent on their environment: massive, passively-evolving spheroids dominate cluster cores, while in field regions, galaxies are typically low-mass, star-forming and disk-dominated (e.g Blanton et al. 2005). Equally the global properties of galaxies have been found to be bimodally distributed around a stellar mass of ~3 × 1010 M⊙ (~M*+1) (e.g. Kauffmann et al. 2003). Large-scale spectroscopic surveys have shown that the evolution of massive galaxies is primarily driven by their merger history, rather than through direct interection with the cluster environment, as demonstrated by the finding of massive passively-evolving galaxies in all environments, mild observed environmental trends for their mean stellar ages, and the gradual SF-density relation in which star-formation is still seen to be suppressed in galaxies 3–4 virial radii from the nearest cluster. In contrast, in the dwarf regime (>M*+2) dramatic changes are seen in both the luminosity function and red galaxy fraction between those galaxies in the cores of clusters and those at the virial radius (Mercurio et al. 2006, Haines et al. 2006a). We have examined the origins of the bimodality observed in the global properties of galaxies by comparing the environmental dependencies of star-formation for giant and dwarf galaxy populations. Using SDSS DR4 spectroscopic data to create a volume-limited sample complete to M*+3, we find that the environmental dependences of giant and dwarf galaxies are quite different, implying fundamental differences in their evolution (Haines et al. 2006b). Whereas the star-formation histories of giant galaxies are determined primarily by their merger history, this is not the case for dwarf galaxies. In particular, we find that old or passive dwarf galaxies are ONLY found as satellites within massive halos (clusters, groups or giant galaxies), with none in the lowest density regions. This implies that star-formation in dwarf galaxies must be much more resilient to the effects of mergers, and that the evolution of dwarf galaxies is primarily driven by the mass of their host halo, through effects such as suffocation, ram-pressure stripping or galaxy harassment.

We use g and r band imaging from the Palomar Abell Cluster Survey (Gal et al. 2000, AJ 120, 540) in order to estimate internal color gradients, measured as the logarithmic slope of galaxy radial color profiles, for a sample of 4000 early-type galaxies in N = 162 Abell clusters, spanning a wide richness range, from poor groups to rich clusters, and a redshift range of z=0.05 to z=0.25. Color gradients are estimated from the galaxy structural parameters (namely, the effective radius, re, and the Sersic index, n) in the g and r bands. These parameters are derived by fitting galaxy images with 2D PSF convolved Sersic models (La Barbera et al. 2002, ApJ, 571, 790). We select as early-type cluster galaxies those objects with Sersic index n>2, that lie on the color magnitude relation of each cluster. Only objects with S/N ratio high enough to derive reliable structural parameters are included in the analysis (La Barbera et al. 2005, ApJL, 626, 19). Field contamination amounts to ~10%; in our sample and is corrected for by using 32 blank fields observed with the same setup and analyzed in the same way as the cluster images. We find that color gradients follow two distinct redshift trends, with color gradients being less steep for richer rather than poor clusters (La Barbera et al. 2005, ApJL, 626, 19). Fig. 1 plots the mean internal color gradient of galaxies as a function of local galaxy density, which is estimated by using the Voronoi tessellation method. We find that color gradients are strongly dependent on local environment, with color gradients being less steep in higher rather than in lower density regions. However, this environmental trend only holds for poor clusters, with galaxies in rich clusters not showing any significant trend. These results support a picture whereby some interaction mechanism, such as galaxy-galaxy merging, flattens the internal color gradient of galaxies, producing the observed correlation with local density in low richness clusters. If rich clusters form through the merging of groups of galaxies, this process would wash out any correlation between local density and the past merging history of galaxies.

We present abundance ratio estimates of individual elements, namely C, N, Na, and the so-called alpha elements, Mg, O, Si, Ca, and Ti, for the bulge of M31. The analysis is based on long-slit, high-quality spectroscopy of the bulge, taken with the OSIRIS spectrograph at the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS (GTC). Abundance ratios, [X/Fe]s, are inferred by comparing radially binned spectra of M31 with different state-of-the-art stellar population models, averaging out results from various methods, namely full-spectral, full-index, and line-strength fitting, respectively. For the bulk of the bulge, we find that O, N, and Na are significantly enhanced compared to Fe, with abundances of about 0.3dex, followed by C, Mg, and Si, with [X/Fe] about 0.2dex, and lastly, Ti and Ca, mostly tracking Fe ([X/Fe]<0.1dex), within the error bars. Performing the same analysis on SDSS stacked spectra of early-type galaxies with different velocity dispersion, we find that the abundance pattern of the M31 bulge is very similar to that of most massive galaxies, supporting a scenario where most of the bulge formed in a fast and intense episode of star-formation.

We present new H- and K-band spectroscopy for the bulge of M31, taken with the LUCI spectrograph at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT). We studied radial trends of CO absorption features (namely, CO1.58, CO1.60, CO1.64, CO1.66, CO1.68, CO2.30, CO2.32, CO2.35) in the bulge of M31, out to a galactocentric distance of 100'' (380pc). We find that most COs do not exhibit a strong radial gradient, despite the strong metallicity gradient inferred from the optical spectral range, except for CO1.64, showing a steep increase in the center. We compared the observed line strengths to predictions of different state-of-the-art stellar population models, including an updated version of EMILES models, which also uses the extended IRTF spectral library. The observed COs are close to models' predictions, but in some models they turn out to be underestimated. We find that the lack of radial gradients is due to the combination of increasing CO strength with metallicity and C abundance, and decreasing CO strength with IMF slope and O abundance. We speculate that the steep gradient of CO1.64 might be due to Na overabundance. Remarkably, we were able to fit, at the same time, optical indices and all the NIR COs except for CO1.68, leaving abundance ratios (i.e., [C/Fe], [O/Fe], and [Mg/Fe]) as free-fitting parameters, imposing age and metallicity constraints from the optical, with no significant contribution from intermediate-age populations. For the majority of the bulge, we find [Mg/Fe]~0.15dex, [O/Fe] larger than [Mg/Fe] (by ~0.1dex), and C abundance consistent with that of Mg. In the central (few arcsec) region, we still find an enhancement of O and Mg, but significantly lower [C/Fe]. We find that the COs' line strengths of the bulge are significantly lower than those of massive galaxies, possibly because of a difference in carbon abundance, as well as, to some extent, total metallicity.