Issue |
A&A
Volume 509, January 2010
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A61 | |
Number of page(s) | 17 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/200912805 | |
Published online | 19 January 2010 |
The old and heavy bulge of M 31*
I. Kinematics and stellar populations
1
Max-Planck Institut für extraterrestrische Physik,
Giessenbachstrasse, Postfach 1312, 85741 Garching, Germany e-mail: saglia@mpe.mpg.de
2
Universitäts-Sternwarte München, Scheinerstrasse 1, 81679
München, Germany
Received:
1
July
2009
Accepted:
28
October
2009
We present new optical long-slit data along six position
angles of the bulge region of M 31. We derive accurate stellar and
gas kinematics reaching 5 arcmin from the center, where the disk
light contribution is always less than 30%, and out to 8 arcmin
along the major axis, where the disk provides 55% of the total
light. We show that the velocity dispersions of McElroy (1983)
are severely underestimated (by up to 50 km s-1). As a consequence,
previous dynamical models have underestimated the stellar mass of
M 31's bulge by a factor of 2. As a further consequence, the
light-weighted velocity dispersion of the galaxy grows to 166 km s-1 and to
170 km s-1 if rotation is also taken into account, thus
reducing the discrepancy between the predicted and measured mass
of the black hole at the center of M 31 from a factor of 3 to a
factor of 2. The kinematic position angle varies with distance,
pointing to triaxiality, but a quantitative conclusion can be
reached only after simultaneous proper dynamical modeling of the
bulge and disk components is performed. We detect gas
counterrotation near the bulge minor axis. We measure eight
emission-corrected Lick indices. They are approximately constant
on circles. Using simple stellar population models we derive the
age, metallicity and α-element overabundance profiles.
Except for the region in the inner arcsecs of the galaxy, the
bulge of M 31 is uniformly old (12 Gyr, with many best-fit
ages at the model grid limit of 15 Gyr), slightly
α-elements overabundant ([ α/Fe] ≈ 0.2) and of
solar metallicity, in agreement with studies of the resolved
stellar components. The predicted
,
and
Sloan color
profiles match the dust-corrected observations reasonably well,
within the known limitations of current simple stellar population
models. The stellar populations have approximately radially
constant mass-to-light ratios (M/LR≈ 4-4.5
for a Kroupa IMF), which is in agreement with
the stellar dynamical estimates based on our new velocity
dispersions. In the inner arcsecs the luminosity-weighted age
drops to 4–8 Gyr, while the metallicity increases to above three
times the solar value. Starting from 6 arcmin from the center
along the major axis, the mean age drops to ≤8 Gyr with
slight supersolar metallicity (
+0.1 dex) and
α-element overabundance (
+0.2 dex) for a
mass-to-light ratio
≤ 3
. Diagnostic
diagrams based on the [OIII]/Hβ and [NI]/Hβ emission
line equivalent widths (EWs) ratios indicate that the gas is
ionized by shocks outside 10 arcsec, but an AGN-like ionizing
source could be present near the center. We speculate that a
gas-rich minor merger happened some 100 Myr ago, causing the
observed minor axis gas counterrotation, the recent star
formation event and possibly some nuclear activity.
Key words: galaxies: kinematics and dynamics / galaxies: individual: M 31 / galaxies: stellar content
© ESO, 2010
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