Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Abundances in the Galaxy: field stars
- Part II Abundances in the Galaxy: Galactic stars in clusters, bulges and the centre
- Part III Observations – abundances in extragalactic contexts
- Part IV Stellar populations and mass functions
- Part V Physical processes at high metallicity
- Part VI Formation and evolution of metal-rich stars and stellar yields
- Part VII Chemical and photometric evolution beyond Solar metallicity
- 43 Models of the Solar vicinity: the metal-rich stage
- 44 Chemical-evolution models of ellipticals and bulges
- 45 Chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge
- 46 How do galaxies become metal-rich? An examination of the yield problem
- 47 Abundance patterns: thick and thin disks
- 48 Formation and evolution of the Galactic bulge: constraints from stellar abundances
44 - Chemical-evolution models of ellipticals and bulges
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- Part I Abundances in the Galaxy: field stars
- Part II Abundances in the Galaxy: Galactic stars in clusters, bulges and the centre
- Part III Observations – abundances in extragalactic contexts
- Part IV Stellar populations and mass functions
- Part V Physical processes at high metallicity
- Part VI Formation and evolution of metal-rich stars and stellar yields
- Part VII Chemical and photometric evolution beyond Solar metallicity
- 43 Models of the Solar vicinity: the metal-rich stage
- 44 Chemical-evolution models of ellipticals and bulges
- 45 Chemical evolution of the Galactic bulge
- 46 How do galaxies become metal-rich? An examination of the yield problem
- 47 Abundance patterns: thick and thin disks
- 48 Formation and evolution of the Galactic bulge: constraints from stellar abundances
Summary
We review some of the models of chemical evolution of ellipticals and bulges of spirals. In particular, we focus on the star-formation histories of ellipticals and their influence on chemical properties such as [α/Fe] versus [Fe/H], galactic mass and visual magnitudes. By comparing models with observational properties, we can constrain the timescales for the formation of these galaxies. The observational properties of stellar populations suggest that the more-massive ellipticals formed on a shorter timescale than less-massive ones, in the sense that both the star-formation rate and the mass-assembly rate, strictly linked properties, were greater for the most-massive objects. Observational properties of true bulges seem to suggest that they are very similar to ellipticals and that they formed on a very short timescale: for the bulge of the Milky Way we suggest a timescale of 0.1 Gyr. This leads us to conclude that the bulge evolved in a quite independent way from the Galactic disk.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The Metal-Rich Universe , pp. 428 - 440Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008
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