Kinematic properties and stellar populations of faint early-type galaxies. II. Line-strength measurements of central coma galaxies

Abstract

We present line-strength measurements for 74 early-type galaxies in the core of the Coma cluster reaching down to velocity dispersions, sigma, of 30 km s(-1). The index-sigma relations for our sample, including galaxies with sigma < 100 km s(-1) (low-sigma), differ in shape depending on which index is used. We note two types of relations for the metallic indices: one showing a break in the slope around similar to 100 km s(-1) and another group with strong linear relations between an index and log s. We find no connection between the behavior of index-sigma relations with either alpha- or Fe-peak elements. However, we find indications that the relations are tighter for indices which do not depend on the microturbulent velocities of stellar atmospheres. We confirm previous results that low-sigma galaxies including dE/dS0s are on average younger, less metal rich, and have lower [alpha/Fe] in comparison with E/S0s. Our data show that these trends derived for high-sigma galaxies extend down to dE/dS0s. This is a factor of similar to 2 lower in sigma than previously published work. We confirm that the observed anticorrelation between age and metallicity for high-sigma galaxies is consistent with the effects of correlated errors. Low-sigma galaxies also show a similar relation between age and metallicity as a result of correlated errors. However, they are offset from this relationship so that, on average, they are less metal rich and younger than their high-sigma counterparts.