Abundance ratios in hierarchical galaxy formation

Abstract

The chemical enrichment and stellar abundance ratios of galaxies which form in a hierarchical clustering scheme are calculated. For this purpose I adopt the star formation histories (SFH) as they are delivered by semi-analytic models in Kauffmann (1996}. It turns out that the average SFH of cluster ellipticals does not yield globally alpha-enhanced stellar populations. The star burst that occurs when the elliptical forms in the major merger plays therefore a crucial role in producing alpha-enhancement. Only under the assumption that the IMF is significantly flattened with respect to the Salpeter value during the burst, a Mg/Fe overabundant population can be obtained. In particular for the interpretation of radial gradients in metallicity and alpha-enhancement, the mixing of global and burst populations are of great importance. The model predicts bright field galaxies to be less alpha-enhanced than their counterparts in clusters.