# 1 Brief Description of the Models

## 1 Brief Description of the Models

The semi-analytic models used in this paper have been described in detail in ,  and most recently, in . The reader is referred to these papers for more background. To summarize, an algorithm based on an extension of the Press-Schechter theory is used to generate Monte Carlo realizations of the merging paths of dark matter halos from high redshift until the present. It is assumed that as a dark matter halo forms, the gas relaxes to a distribution that exactly parallels that of the dark matter. Gas then cools and condenses onto a central galaxy at the core of each halo. Star formation, feedback processes and chemical enrichment take place as described in  and . As time proceeds, a halo will merge with a number of others, forming a new halo of larger mass. All gas which has not already cooled is assumed to be shock heated to the virial temperature of this new halo. This hot gas then cools onto the central galaxy of the new halo, which is identified with the central galaxy of its largest progenitor. The central galaxies of the other progenitors become satellite galaxies, which are able to merge with the central galaxy on a dynamical friction timescale. If a merger takes place between two galaxies of roughly comparable mass, the merger remnant is labelled as an elliptical and all cold gas is transformed instantaneously into stars in a “starburst”. Note that the infall of new gas onto satellite galaxies is not allowed, and star formation will continue in such objects only until their existing cold gas reservoirs are exhausted. Thus the epoch at which a galaxy is accreted by a larger halo delineates the transition between active star formation in the galaxy and passive evolution of its stellar population. The stellar populations of elliptical merger remnants in clusters hence redden as their stellar populations age. Central galaxy merger remnants in the “field” are able to accrete new gas in the form of a disk to form a spiral galaxy consisting of both a spheroidal bulge and a disk component. We use the metallicity-dependent population synthesis models of Bruzual & Charlot  to calculate observable quantities such as magnitudes and colours for our model galaxies. Note that early-type galaxies are defined to to have $`M(B)_{bulge}M(B)_{total}<1`$ .

## 2 Ages, metallicities and the evolution of the colour-magnitude relation

In figure 1, we compare the age-luminosity and metallicity-luminosity relations of cluster and field elliptical galaxies at the present day. Field ellipticals are defined to reside in halos with $`V_c<600`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> (i.e. systems with line-of-sight velocity dispersion less than about 400 km s<sup>-1</sup>). Results are shown for a “standard” CDM cosmology ($`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.5`$, $`\sigma _8=0.7`$ and $`H_0=50`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc<sup>-1</sup>). Elliptical galaxies have V-light weighted mean ages of $`8`$ Gyr, with an r.m.s. scatter of $`1`$ Gyr. The metallicities range from 0.5 solar at M(V)= –18 to just over solar for the brightest systems in the cluster.

As can be seen, the relations between metallicity and luminosity are identical for field and cluster Es. The bright field ellipticals have systematically younger mean stellar ages and have an r.m.s. scatter in age about 60% larger than ellipticals of the same luminosity in clusters. This is because the bright field Es are almost always “central” galaxies that have formed in a recent merger and have not yet had time to accrete a new disk component.

In figure 2 we show the predicted restframe $`UV`$ colour-magnitude relation for early-type galaxies in clusters with $`V_c=1000`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> at $`z=0,0.7,1.5`$ and $`2`$. For reference, the solid line is the observed relation of Bower, Lucey & Ellis  at $`z=0`$. The scatter in the model relation at $`z=0`$ is 0.04 mag, which is in good agreement with the observations. There is no noticeable increase in the scatter at higher redshifts. Note, however, that there is a progressive flattening in the slope of the colour-magnitude relation with redshift, although it only becomes really noticeable at $`z>1`$. This is caused by the fact that the bigger ellipticals have slightly younger mean ages in our model, and the effect of this on observables such as colour and magnitude, is much more pronounced at early times.

## 3 Abundance Evolution

In figure 3, we show the predicted evolution with redshift of the abundance of elliptical galaxies with stellar mass greater than $`10^{11}M_{}`$ for a high-density $`\tau `$CDM model ($`\mathrm{\Omega }=1`$, $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=0.2`$, $`\sigma _8=0.6`$, $`H_0=50`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc<sup>-1</sup>) and for a low-density $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM model ($`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$, $`\sigma _8=0.9`$, $`H_0=70`$ km s<sup>-1</sup> Mpc <sup>-1</sup>). As expected, the abundance of elliptical galaxies decreases with redshift in both models, because these systems are formed continuously over time by merging. The rate of evolution is more rapid in the high-density model. For $`\tau `$CDM, the abundance of bright ellipticals declines by a factor of 3 by $`z=1`$. For $`\mathrm{\Lambda }`$CDM, the abundance has only dropped by 30% by $`z=1`$, but is down by a factor 3 at $`z=2`$. This simply reflects the fact that structure formation occurs later in the high-density model than in the low-density one.

As discussed in , future wide area $`K`$-selected redshift surveys will enable the buildup of elliptical galaxies through mergers to be quantified more accurately.