Chemical Properties of Star Forming Galaxies in the Cluster Environment

  • Published : 2012.10.17

Abstract

We utilize Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR7 spectroscopic data of ~340 star forming galaxies in the Virgo cluster to investigate their chemical properties depending on the environments. The chemical evolution of galaxies is linked to their star formation histories (SFHs), as well as to the gas interchange in different environments. In this sense, galaxy metallicity could be an observable parameter providing information on the impact of the environment on the galaxy SFH and/or the galaxy gas content. Thus, we derived gaseous metallicity (e.g., oxygen abundance) of star forming galaxies located in different regions of the Virgo cluster using well-known empirical calibrations. We also estimated their star formation rate (SFR) using H alpha luminosity. Inorder to investigate the chemical properties of these galaxies, we examined relations between various parameters: metallicity vs. luminosity, SFR vs. luminosity, and metallicity vs. cluster-centric radius. From our results, we discuss environmental effects of cluster to the chemical properties of star forming galaxies.

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