Far-Ultraviolet Emission from Elliptical Galaxies at z=0.33

Abstract

We present far-ultraviolet (far-UV) images of the rich galaxy cluster ZwCl1358.1+6245, taken with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). When combined with archival HST observations, our data provide a measurement of the UV-to-optical flux ratio in 8 early-type galaxies at z=0.33. Because the UV flux originates in a population of evolved, hot, horizontal branch (HB) stars, this ratio is potentially one of the most sensitive tracers of age in old populations -- it is expected to fade rapidly with lookback time. We find that the UV emission in these galaxies, at a lookback time of 3.9 Gyr, is significantly weaker than it is in the current epoch, yet similar to that in galaxies at a lookback time of 5.6 Gyr. Taken at face value, these measurements imply different formation epochs for the massive ellipticals in these clusters, but an alternative explanation is a "floor" in the UV emission due to a dispersion in the parameters that govern HB morphology.