Stellar Population Synthesis of the Elliptical Galaxy NGC 4649

Abstract

We investigated population of the elliptical galaxy NGC 4649 using the spectral synthesis technique based on the linear program in the spectral regions between 3160Å to 10800Å. We used the spectral data of stars obtained by Gunn & Stryker (1983), and the integrated spectrum of NGC 4649 observed by Bertola et al. (1982). Among four models with different main sequence turn-off points, G8-K0V main sequence turn-off model is best fitted to the integrated spectrum of NGC 4649. We also found that super metal rich K giants are needed to describe the absorption lines in the long wavelength regions of integrated spectrum of NGC 4649. The mass to absolute light ratio obtained from the spectral synthesis is ~20 similar to those calculated dynamically.

Keywords

• POPULATION SYNTHESIS
• ELLIPTICAL GALAXY
• NGC 4649