The impact of TP-AGB stars on hierarchical galaxy formation models

From: arXiv:0812.1225 [ps, pdf, other]

Title: The impact of TP-AGB stars on hierarchical galaxy formation models

Authors: Chiara Tonini (1), Claudia Maraston (1), Julien Devriendt (2), Daniel Thomas (1), Joseph Silk (2) ((1) Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, UK; (2) University of Oxford, UK)

Comments: 5 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to MNRAS Letters

Subjects: Astrophysics (astro-ph)

The authors paint galaxy magnitudes on a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation, comparing two population synthesis packages: Maraston 05 (with 'proper' treatment of TP-AGB stars) and Pegase (without those beasts). here they show the V-K,V color magnitude relation at 4 different redshifts for disks and spheroids. The TP-AGBs are particularly relevant at an age of 1 Gyr in the K band. Mass tot K-band light ratios differ by a factor of ~3, for 1 Gyr SSPs, and less for other wavelength bands and ages (V for example is almost indistinghuishable). This may have big consequences for the fitting of stellar masses on the basis of rest-frame K band photometry, as is often done.