Effect of Environment on the Underlying Stellar Populations of Dwarf Elliptical Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

Abstract

We derive ages, metallicities and [alpha/Fe] ratios for dwarf early-type galaxies (dE/dS0) in the center and a region believed to be infalling into the Coma cluster. We find that a set of metallic indices cannot be described by linear relations with velocity dispersion (sigma), while another group of indices exhibits linear index-sigma relations. dE/dS0 galaxies in the core of the cluster are on average younger, and have lower metallicities and lower alpha-ratios (solar to sub-solar) than the more luminous elliptical galaxies. On the other hand, dEs/dSos in the infall region of Coma form a less homogeneous population. We find an unusually high fraction of dE/dS0s with high [alpha/Fe] ratios, suggesting short time scales for the star formation histories for these galaxies. Furthermore, the dE/dS0s with high alpha-ratios have a range of ages and metallicities implying multiple formation scenarios where some galaxies have experienced their short star formation bursts at more recent epochs.