STAR FORMATION HISTORIES OF BRIGHTEST CLUSTER GALAXIES WITH INTERMEDIATE CENTRAL AGES

Abstract

This work is devoted to the study of the star formation histories (SFHs) of the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) with intermediate central ages (from 5 to 10Gyr), to confirm if BCGs with these ages represent different accretion histories or simply a stochastic effect. The sample is composed of 6 BCGs with intermediate central ages and 3 BCGs with old central ages (> 12Gyr) as comparison galaxies. The galaxies were observed with the integrated field spectrograph VIMOS installed in the Very Large Telescope (VLT). The SFHs were obtained with the full spectrum fitting technique using the star population code STARLIGHT. The BCGs of intermediate central age analyzed formed almost 100% of their stars at z > 2 and their SFHs are similar to the SFHs of BCGs of old central ages and elliptical galaxies of similar mass (MDyn > 1011 Mʘ); therefore, these BCGs do not represent different SFHs.