# THE STELLAR POPULATIONS OF SPIRAL DISKS.II. MEASURING AND MODELING THE RADIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ABSORPTION SPECTRAL INDICES

## 1 INTRODUCTION

Abundance radial gradients in the Milky Way Galaxy (MWG) have been widely studied (see e.g. Prantzos & Aubert 1995) and a large number of models to reproduce and interpret them have been developed starting with that of Tinsley (1980). In the latter the Galaxy chemical evolution was described by the simplest model of a closed box, which failed to reproduce the large observed radial gradient. Different mechanisms were suggested afterwards to generate these radial gradients ( Götz & Köppen 1992). Gas infall remains the most often invoked mechanism capable of reproducing the observations of the MWG. This mechanism can also solve the well known G-dwarf problem (Pagel 1989, Pitts & Tayler 1989). Several numerical models incorporating gas infall have been used to describe the MWG (see Tosi, 1996 and references therein) with various degrees of success. The multiphase model described in section 3 of this paper is one of them.

Variations of abundances with galactocentric radius have also been observed in other spiral galaxies (Díaz 1989; Skillman et al. 1996; Garnett et al. 1997; Henry 1998). Abundance radial gradients give different dex/kpc slopes for different galaxies and some correlations between these values and galaxy characteristics have been shown to exist (Vila-Costas & Edmunds 1992; Zaritsky, Kennicutt, & Huchra 1994).

Until now abundance radial distributions in spiral galaxies have been studied only with data pertaining to the gas phase where abundance estimations are obtained from observations of H ii region emission lines. Only for our Galaxy (Edvardsson et al. 1993; Edvardsson 1998) and for some local group galaxies, such as M33 (Monteverde et al. 1997, there are abundance data belonging to the stellar component of disks. Therefore, only the present-day abundances are known in external spiral galaxies, and they refer only to the $`\alpha `$ group of elements such as oxygen, calcium or sulfur, since the iron group is not accessible to H ii region observations.

For gas-depleted objects such as elliptical galaxies, bulges and globular clusters, the study of integrated stellar spectral indices has been the most common technique used to estimate abundance levels. In particular the Lick indices Mg<sub>2</sub> and Fe5270 have been widely used and a large number of observations have accumulated (Faber 1973; Mould 1978; Burstein 1979; Burstein et al. 1984, Faber et al. 1985; Baum, Thompsen, & Morgan 1986; Davies et al. 1987; Couture & Hardy 1988; Worthey, Faber, & González 1992; Davidge 1992; Jablonka, Martin, & Arimoto 1996; Fisher, Franx, & Illingworth 1996; Trager et al. 1997). In these cases the interpretation of the above indices, although far from trivial, is considerably simplified by the probable narrow age interval of the stellar population under study. Furthermore, these are generally high surface brightness objects. Due to their lower surface brightness, however, similar observations for the stellar component of spiral disks are extremely difficult to achieve, even with large telescopes. The absence of this information is regrettable because the integrated light of spiral disks contains a light-weighted, age-weighted chemical signature complementary to that of H ii regions.

In the present work we use a new imaging technique to obtain information on the Mg<sub>2</sub> and Fe5270 spectral features across the face of spiral disks (Beauchamp & Hardy 1997, hereafter Paper I). Thus, we are observing abundance indicators averaged over the chemical history of the disk as opposed to the accumulated effect on the extreme population I component revealed by the H ii regions or by B stars. But spectral indices of composite systems do not measure abundances directly, and to derive the latter from the former require the help of evolutionary models. We will discuss in this paper the use of a multiphase chemical evolution model for this purpose.

The multiphase chemical evolution model has been recently applied to six spiral galaxies of different morphological types (Mollá, Ferrini, & Díaz 1996, hereafter MFD96). This model may be able to explain the observed correlations of abundance gradients with galaxy types as arising from variations of the characteristics infall rate and of the cloud and star formation efficiencies with morphological type and/or Arm Class. The observed radial distributions of diffuse and molecular gas, oxygen abundances and star formation rate can in turn be used as constraints for these models.

The time evolution of abundance radial gradient, and other quantities involved in chemical evolution, such as the star formation rate (SFR) or gas and stellar surface densities, may also be obtained from the numerical theoretical models. These time-dependent quantities have been calculated with the multiphase model for the same group of six spiral galaxies (Mollá, Ferrini, & Díaz 1997, hereafter MFD97). However, when only observations of H ii regions are available, it is only the present day abundance that serves as a constraint for the model. As a result, the time evolution obtained with our models is not well constrained and different evolutionary paths may lead to the same final outcome. In fact, models for the MWG using similar present-time radial abundance distributions yield different histories of the abundances gradients (Mollá, Díaz, & Ferrini 1992; Tosi 1996) as a result of differences in SFR and infall rate behavior in time and space. Fixing these physical parameters would require information from intermediate evolutionary phases.

A way to constrain more tightly this time evolution will be proposed here. The aim is to compare the predicted radial distribution of stellar absorption spectral indices, calculated by assuming a given stellar abundance in the disk, with the observed distribution of spectral indices. The latter represents a time-averaged quantity over the life of the disk strongly weighted by its SFR.

The plan of this paper is as follows. In section 2 we summarize our observational technique and the data obtained for the three galaxies, NGC 4303, NGC 4321 and NGC 4535. We present the description and physical input of our numerical models in Section 3. In Section 4 we combine our chemical evolution calculations with synthesis results for Single Stellar Populations (SSP) in order to predict radial distributions of the two spectral indices, Mg<sub>2</sub> and Fe5270 adopted for this investigation, and then compare them with the observations. In Section 5, we extract and discuss the resulting information on the characteristics of the stellar populations present. Finally, we present our conclusions in Section 6.

## 2 OBSERVATIONS: TECHNIQUES AND DATA

In this section we summarize the observational techniques used in this work to measure radial metallicity profiles in the inter-arm regions of the discs of spiral galaxies. For a more exhaustive description of the technique we refer the reader to Paper I (Beauchamp & Hardy 1997).

### 2.1 The Technique

The basic idea of the technique described here is to make use of spectral images to increase the signal to noise of the index measurement by adding up azimuthally all the information contained within a given radial interval. By comparison, traditional long-slit spectroscopy provides multiplex spectral information but only over a very restricted surface. The advantage of our technique is that we are able to follow a restricted selected spectral interval over a large spatial interval with excellent signal to noise ratios using small telescopes. Azimuthal integration of the underlying smooth stellar signal, after removal of the signature of the spiral arms and associated extreme pop. I structures, provides measurements of spectral indices useful to radial distances where the surface brightness of the galaxy reaches $``$ 24$`\mu _V`$ .

The first step followed consisted in obtaining monochromatic images of galaxies in order to measure the Lick Mg<sub>2</sub> and Fe52 indices. We used four intermediate pass band (60Å) filters, two of them centered on the magnesium and iron features and two on continuum regions, RC for the red and BC for the blue continua. A description of the filters is given in Table 1. The interference filter set described there was designed for a mean velocity close to that of the Virgo cluster. At that distance we have excellent spatial resolution per flux unit, atmospheric seeing does not become an important problem, and our bandpasses do not become contaminated by any strong sky emission line. We designed our filters to closely reproduce the Lick definition (see Faber et al. 1985) for Mg<sub>2</sub>, but we chose to use the same continua for Fe52 than for Mg<sub>2</sub> in order to save observing time. We thus obtained a pseudo-index, Fe52’, that we calibrated later into the standard Lick Fe52 system at the expense of some loss of sensitivity. The adopted band-passes are shown graphically on Fig. 1 of Paper I.

For each galaxy we obtained a set of four images from where we could compute the Mg<sub>2</sub> and Fe52 indices at almost any point in the galaxy. We must emphasize that we choose galaxies that were nearly at the same redshift because our filters could not be significantly tuned (tilting allowed a range of only about 5Å). In addition we selected galaxies viewed nearly face-on in order to increase the number of available pixels, better isolate the inter-arm pixels, and reduce rotational effects.

Given the widths of the filters (about 60 $`\mathrm{\AA }`$ FWHM) which were almost rectangular, the average nightly temperature, and the tilting capabilities, we could observe galaxies spanning the approximate velocity interval 1400 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$ – 2100 $`\mathrm{km}\mathrm{s}^1`$. This interval was quite appropriate for Virgo spirals. Notice that the strong $`[\mathrm{OII}]\lambda 5577\mathrm{\AA }`$ atmospheric emission line falls to the red of our filters, an important consideration when dealing with photometry at small surface brightness levels (see Baum, Thompsen, & Morgan 1986).

The second observational step involved the computation of the zero point of the index system, which depends on atmospheric conditions and thus must be obtained from multiplexing spectroscopy of the bright nuclear regions of the target galaxies. The spectroscopy was calibrated against the standard Lick system, and the spectroscopically-derived Lick indices were compared with the ones obtained for the same region from the interference-filter images, thus yielding the required zero points.

Using the appropriated color and brightness criteria V, R and I images were then used to reject the young and hot population I lying in the spiral arms.

### 2.2 The Data

The image data set was obtained during two observation runs, one at CTIO (Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory) during March 1995 for NGC 4535 and at OMM (Observatoire du mont Mégantic) in March 1996 for NGC 4303 and NGC 4321. At CTIO the 90cm telescope was used with a 2k x 2k CCD binned to a 1k x 1k format. The pixel size of 0.79$`\mathrm{}`$ gave a field of view of 13.5$`\mathrm{}`$. At OMM the 1.6m telescope was used in conjunction with a 1k x 1k CCD and the ”Panoramix” focal reducer. For this one, the pixels’ size of 1.18$`\mathrm{}`$ gave a field of view of 20$`\mathrm{}`$. At CTIO, a spatial resolution FWHM slightly below 2 arc-seconds was reached while it was between 3$`\mathrm{}`$ and 4$`\mathrm{}`$ at OMM.

The spectra were obtained with the OMM Boller & Chivens long slit spectrograph during five runs conducted from January 1995 to June 1996. In addition to the bright central portions of the galaxies we took spectra of standard stars in order to place the data on the Lick system. The reader is referred back to paper I for details of the observational setups used on both Observatories.

## 3 CHEMICAL EVOLUTION MODELS

We applied the multiphase model described in detail in MFD96 to the galaxies NGC 4303, NGC 4321 and NGC 4535. These three galaxies are barred and are located in the Virgo cluster. Their morphological types (T) and Arm Class are shown in Table 2, columns (2) and (3), and were taken from Tully (1988) and Biviano et al. (1991), respectively. Distances in column (4) and effective radii in column (5) were also taken from Tully (1988) with the exception of NGC 4303, for which the effective radii was taken from Henry et al. 1992.

The chemical evolution for these 3 galaxies was modeled as described in MFD96. We assumed that every protogalaxy was initially a spheroid composed of primordial gas. The total mass included in the spheroid, as well as its radial distribution, are derived from the H i rotation curves taken in this case from Guhathakurta et al. (1988). The maximum rotation velocity (in km/s) given for these authors for each galaxy is in column (6) of Table 2.

Optical (H$`\alpha `$) rotation curves by Chincarini & de Souza (1985) for NGC 4535, and Distefano et al. (1990) for NGC 4303 and NGC 4321 have also been used. These curves cover a short radial range, but they map better the inner regions. As a result we tried to use both types of curves. This was easy for NGC 4321 and NGC 4535, but proved to be more cumbersome for NGC 4303 for which both curves were quite different in the 1–5 kpc range. Thus, the total mass and its radial distributions are better determinated for NGC 4321 and NGC 4535 than for NGC 4303. In particular, if we take into account the larger rotation velocity estimated with optical data for the inner regions of the latter galaxy, a higher total mass at 2–3 kpc galactocentric distance is found. Moreover, as pointed out, these three galaxies have a bar. We do not know if these rotation curves trace the implied accumulation of gas or stars in the bar region.

We now follow the protogalaxy evolution. Initially all of the mass is in the form of diffuse gas. This gas begins to form stars in the halo while collapsing onto an equatorial plane from where the disc will form. The model splits the galaxy into concentric cylindric regions 1 kpc wide. There is a halo zone and a disk one at each galactocentric distance. The collapse proceeds at a rate that is inversely proportional to the collapse time scale. This time scale $`\tau (R)`$ in turn depends on the galactocentric distance due to its dependence on the total mass surface density: $`\tau \sigma (R)^{1/2}`$ (Jones & Wyse 1983). We assume the resulting radial dependence to be an exponential function, namely $`\tau (R)=\tau _0e^{R/l}`$, where $`l`$ is the scale length taken as 4 kpc for the three galaxies. The characteristic collapse time scale $`\tau _0`$ depends on the total mass of the galaxy through the relation $`\tau _0M_9^{1/2}T`$ (Gallagher, Hunter, & Tutukov 1984), where $`M_9`$ is the total mass of the galaxy in 10$`{}_{}{}^{9}\text{M}_{}^{}`$ units and $`T`$ is its age, assumed to be 13 Gyr for all spiral galaxies. We calculate the collapse time scale $`\tau _0`$ for the program galaxies via the expression $`\tau _0=\tau _{}(M_{9,gal}/M_{9,MWG})^{1/2}`$, where the subscript MWG refers to the Milky Way, and $`\tau _{}`$, taken as 4 Gyr, is the collapse time scale value used for the solar neigbourhood region (Ferrini et al. 1992), which we use as a reference. Total masses $`M_{9,gal}`$ are calculated from the rotation curves via the expression $`M_{9,gal}=2.32\times 10^5R_{gal}V_{max}^2`$ (Lequeux 1983), with $`R_{gal}=30`$ kpc for every galaxy whereas $`V_{max}`$ takes the values listed in Table 2. This collapse time is associated for every galaxy with a region equivalent to the solar region in the MWG, located at a galactocentric distance $`R_0`$ which is itself calculated from the individual effective radius $`R_{eff}`$ (see table 2, column 5). Values for $`R_0`$ and $`\tau (R_0)=\tau _0`$ are listed in Table 3, where the model parameters are shown (see below).

We now let stars form and allow them to evolve and enrich the ISM. The initial mass function (IMF), an empirical function similar to a Scalo law, is taken from Ferrini, Palla, & Penco (1990). The required nucleosynthesis prescriptions for massive stars are those of Woosley & Weaver (1986). In the specific case of <sup>14</sup>N production the prescriptions come from Maeder (1983). Single low and intermediate mass stars contribute to the enrichment through winds and planetary nebulae by producing N, C and He following Renzini & Voli (1981) prescriptions. The type I supernovae explosions release mostly iron following Nomoto, Thielemann, & Yokoi (1984) and Branch & Nomoto (1986).

The star formation in the halo is assumed to follow a Schmidt law with an exponent of the gas density $`n=1.5`$. The proportionality coefficient depends on the radial distance of the halo region being considered and on the efficiency of the process, $`ϵ_K`$, which is assumed constant for every region and galaxy.

Star formation in the disk is assumed to be a two–step process: first, molecular clouds form from the diffuse gas; then spontaneous star formation is triggered by cloud-cloud collisions. Stimulated star formation by the interaction of massive stars with molecular clouds is also included in the computation. Because star formation in molecular clouds is a well-observed process, our star formation prescription is probably closer to physical reality than other frequently assumed laws. Each one of formation rates used throughout the computation depends on the masses of the phases involved with proportionality factors that depend in turn on efficiencies or probability factors. The actual equations describing these parameters are obtained in Ferrini et al. (1994), where their radial dependence are calculated. We direct the reader to this reference for a thorough description of the multiphase chemical evolution model and parameters involved. Induced star formation is a local process with an efficiency $`ϵ_a`$ constant for all regions and galaxies. Cloud and stimulated star formations have a radial dependence as a result of volume effects, and a dependence on the efficiencies, namely $`ϵ_\mu `$ for the former and $`ϵ_H`$ for the latter process. The acceptable range of these efficiencies is determined by taking into account the Hubble type, and/or the Arm Class for every galaxy. Galaxies of early types of Hubble and/or Arm Class higher are assumed to have larger values of $`ϵ_\mu `$ and $`ϵ_H`$ than the later type ones, or lower Arm Class due to the stronger density wave and tighter arms. The latter physical properties can compress better the diffuse gas phase by favoring the formation of molecular clouds and by increasing the frequency of cloud-cloud collisions. These arguments, developed by Ferrini & Galli (1988) were applied to previous models. In particular a discussion of the possible values of these efficiencies for different types of galaxies and a comparison with observed values are given in MFD96. Taking into account these arguments the galaxy NGC 4321, with an Arm Class of 12, must have larger efficiencies than NGC 4303 with an Arm Class is 9, although the Hubble type is the same. NGC 4535 has both T and the Arm Class very similar to those of NGC 4303; therefore their efficiencies must be similar, too. These efficiency values are applied within a region similar to the solar neighborhood located at a radius $`R_0`$.

The input parameter values, i.e., final efficiencies and collapse times have been adjusted by fitting the model output to the observed radial distributions of atomic gas (H i), molecular gas (H<sub>2</sub>) and star formation rate surface densities, and for the oxygen abundance of the gas phase. Observational data for H i surface densities are from Warmels (1988) and Cayatte et al. (1990). Molecular gas density radial distributions are obtained from Kenney & Young (1988,1989) after suitable corrections needed to take into account the radial dependence of the factor $`\chi `$ that transforms intensities $`I_{CO}`$ into molecular gas densities. Following Verter & Hodge (1995) and Wilson (1995), this factor depends on variations in the abundances of the gas, decreasing below its solar value when abundances are larger than solar and increasing when abundances are sub-solar. The star formation radial distribution is obtained from H$`\alpha `$ fluxes of Kennicutt (1989) as normalized to the “equivalent–to–solar” region value $`\mathrm{\Psi }_0`$. For the galaxy NGC 4321 the most recent data from Knapen & Beckman (1996) and Knapen et al. (1996), kindly made available to us by the first author, has been used. These data set consists of radial distributions of atomic and molecular gas densities and star formation rate derived from the H<sub>α</sub> fluxes. Oxygen abundances are taken from Henry et al. (1992) for NGC 4303, and from McCall, Rybsky, & Shields (1985) and Shields, Skillman, & Kennicutt (1991) for NGC 4321. There are no observed elemental abundance data for NGC 4535. In the first two cases the calibration of Edmunds & Pagel (1984) between $`R_{23}`$ and oxygen abundance $`12+log(O/H)`$ has been used. Whether other parameters are also able to fit these present gas radial distribution and the radial distribution on Mg<sub>2</sub> and Fe52 spectral indices is an issue that will be analyzed in a forthcoming paper (Mollá et al. 1998), where the issue of sensitivity to parameter variations, and thus the uniqueness of this set of efficiencies will be discussed.

The final tuning of efficiencies and collapse times yields values similar but somewhat lower than those chosen in previous models for field galaxies of the same luminosities and morphological types. This is consistent with our program spirals behaving as if they actually were of later morphological types than hitherto classified. This suggestion is in agreement with the recent work by Koopmann & Kenney (1998) where, by comparing the Hubble type classification for field and cluster galaxies, they find that cluster galaxies seem to be classified as earlier than isolated field galaxies having the same absolute bulge strength.

We show in Figs. 1–3 our results for chemical evolution models characterized by the input data of Table 3. These model results are shown by the solid line in figures 1, 2 and 3 for NGC 4303, NGC 4321 and NGC 4535, respectively, together with the corresponding observational data. These figures display abundance radial distributions in panels (a), surface densities of star formation rate as normalized to the value corresponding to the equivalent solar region $`\mathrm{\Psi }_0`$ in panels (b) and finally, gas radial distributions for both the difusse gas H i (panel c) and for the molecular gas H<sub>2</sub> (panel d).

As in previous work, diffuse gas radial distributions results are very well fitted by the models for our three galaxies, showing that the efficiency values as well as their radial dependences, $`ϵ_\mu (R)`$, <sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup>1We assume, as in previous multiphase models, that the effect of the density wave is larger in the inner regions of disks by adopting increasing efficiencies $`ϵ_\mu `$ for decreasing radii for those processes that transforms the diffuse gas into molecular gas are realistic. The model-predicted star formation and molecular gas radial distributions of previous works (MFD96) were lower than observed in the inner regions. This points towards a problem with the selection of efficiencies or with the assumed radial dependence for the destruction of molecular clouds and their conversion into stars, at least for the inner regions of disks. It is likely that this inconsistency was related to the treatment in our previous models of the threshold density for the beginning of the star formation process. In effect, observations seem to require a minimal value of the gas density in order for star formation to be triggered. Following Kenniccutt (1989) this density value depends on the velocity dispersion of the gas. This velocity dispersion is almost constant along the disk galactocentric radius in all galaxies and, because of this, the star formation depends directly on the rotation velocity and inversely on the radius. The latter dependence is already included in our model via the volume dependence of parameters for cloud and star formation processes. Thus, the standard multiphase model star formation law already simulates the behavior that would take place with the inclusion of a threshold density for the triggering of the star formation process. The previous assumption of a constant efficiency $`ϵ_H`$ for spontaneous star formation from cloud-cloud collisions is reasonable provided that the velocity dispersion remains constant. However, in the inner region, close to the bulge, where the disk thickness is larger, this velocity dispersion is larger than elsewhere in the disk (Bertola, Cinzano, & Corsini 1995; Palacios et al. 1997), and the resulting effect is to increase the threshold density to form stars. We have simulated this effect by introducing a variable star formation efficiency for cloud-cloud collision that decreases with decreasing radius. With this assumption the radial distributions of molecular gas are much better reproduced and those of the star formation surface densities are reasonably well fitted. The exception is however the galaxy NGC 4321. In the latter case the difference between the predicted and observed star formation radial distribution could perhaps be explained by the presence of a bar.

In every case studied we have detected a problem with the radial distribution of oxygen abundance in that we have found impossible for our models to predict values as large as those observed in the inner regions. A factor that may explain these high abundances near the center is the existence of a bar. Following Friedli & Benz (1995) models, a bar should produce a radial flow of material towards the center thus flattening the radial gradient, but in the region where this gas flow produces a starburst the abundance should actually increase. This phenomena is local and lasts a few Myr leading to a new maximum in the oxygen abundance. Clearly this abundance effects cannot be reproduced by multiphase models without the introduction of radial flows.

However, $`12+log(O/H)`$ abundances larger than 9.1/9.2 cannot be obtained at all by the multiphase chemical evolution models, which reach saturation level for the oxygen abundance. This means that observed abundances larger than 2 times solar are never reproduced, an old and well-known problem for theoretical chemical evolution models. Maybe the nucleosynthesis prescriptions are not adequate (usually their variations with metallicity are not taken into account) or the observed abundances as obtained via uncertain calibration methods are overestimated (see Díaz 1998).

## 4 USING SYNTHESIS MODELS TO DESCRIBE GALAXY EVOLUTION

As a byproduct of the model applied here we can derive, as we show below, the time evolution of every region for which we are able to reproduce the observed characteristics. We can find for example the star formation history and the time evolution of the various abundances. With both pieces of information we can in turn calculate the integrated mass of stars created in a given time step and the mean abundance reached at that point in time by the gas from which stars form. These values are associated to a mean time in order to calculate a mean age for each stellar generation. The time step used in our calculations is 0.05 Gyr. Therefore the youngest stellar population may be 5$`\times `$10<sup>7</sup> yr old. If we were to use smaller time step, the computation time would increases unduly, but we have found that model results are not too sensitive to the size of the time step.

What all of the above means is that we may consider the stellar populations present at each galactocentric region as a superposition of single stellar populations or generations each characterized by its age and metallicity. Moreover, our model yields abundances for 15 elements, including oxygen, magnesium and iron, so we know the ratio \[Mg/Fe\] for every one of these generations. The latter is a very important datum, being a time–dependent indicator of the mix of $`\alpha `$–elements and Fe–peak elements that tracks the formation history of the galaxy.

We now describe how to use the observed spectral indices as constraints to our evolutionary models. We emphasize that spectral indices do not measure abundances, but must be transformed into them via the computation of stellar populations of known ages and metallicities. These populations can be built by combining spectra from stellar libraries containing a wide span of physical parameters. Thus, each spectral index can be empirically correlated with stellar gravity, effective temperature and metallicity, providing in this way a set of ‘Fitting Functions’ covering the stellar parameter space. In the particular case of the two indices adopted here a significant effort have already been made in this direction (Gorgas et al. 1993; Barbuy 1994; Worthey et al. 1994; Idiart & Freitas-Pacheco 1995; Borges et al. 1995- hereafter B95). The last two works cited used measures of the indices Fe52 and Mg<sub>2</sub> derived from their own sample of stars providing the direct dependence of Mg index on the ratio \[Mg/Fe\]. Synthesis models giving spectral indices for single stellar populations (SSP) of a given age and metallicity have also been calculated (i.e. , Brodie & Huchra 1990; Buzzoni, Gariboldi, & Mantegazza 1992, Buzzoni, Mantegazza, & Gariboldi 1994; Worthey (1994), B95, Weis, Peletier, & Matteucci 1995; Casuso et al. 1996; Vazdekis et al. 1996), all of them with the study of elliptical galaxies in mind. We use here the B95 results because these authors provide the ratio \[Mg/Fe\] explicitly.

We assume that each generation of stars can be represented by a given SSP of known physical parameters. Each spectral index is then calculated from B95 (their equations (9) and (11)), using as parameters the iron abundance or metallicity \[Fe/H\], the ratio \[Mg/Fe\], and the age of the generation as provided by the galaxy models. In addition we assign a total continuum flux to each spectral feature using the explicit SSP spectra from Worthey (1994). With these continuum fluxes and indices we can then compute the fluxes under both spectral features. Finally, we weight these results by the stellar mass created on each time step as provided by the best-fitting multiphase model, using for this purpose Worthey’s (1994) mass/luminosity ratio corresponding to each generation. This calculation is performed for all regions of the disk in order to obtain predicted spectral indices along its radius. The resulting radial distributions of predicted spectral indices are represented by the solid lines in Figures 4, 5, and 6. Notice the procedure followed here to relate spectral indices to abundances: since the index–to–abundance transformation requires knowledge of the population mix present in the disk, we obtain the mix from the model and then use SSP models for every generation in the mix to derived the integrated Lick indices which we then compare to the observations.

In Figures 4,5 and 6 we show the predicted radial distributions of Mg<sub>2</sub> (panels a) and Fe52 (panels b) for NGC 4303, NGC 4321 and NGC 4535 together with the observational data. This is only a first order model which does not follow the local features of disks and attempts only to reproduce the azimuthally-averaged abundance gradient. Keeping this in mind, the observational data are sufficiently well reproduced in all cases by the model calculations as to lend confidence to the models. In the following section we will use the model output to describe the stellar populations of each of the observed disk.

## 5 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Having lent credibility to the models via the use of the integrated Lick indices, as described in the previous section, we now use the model output to follow the temporal and spatial evolution of the galaxies.

In Figures 7, 8 and 9 we display the time evolution of abundance gradients for the multiphase models of the three galaxies under study. In panels (a) we show the $`12+log(X/H)`$ abundances of magnesium (solid line) and iron(dashed line) for three different regions corresponding to the inner, the central and the outer disk. Inspection of these figures reveals some important facts about the abundance gradients and levels, which we presently discuss. The magnesium and the oxygen, being $`\alpha `$-elements, are very quickly produced by massive stars and the abundance gradient is rapidly flattened because abundances reach the saturation level via gas depletion in a short time. The radial gradient of \[O/H\], for the galaxy NGC 4303, decreases from a value -0.141 dex kpc<sup>-1</sup> at an age of 2.5 Gyr to -0.105 dex kpc<sup>-1</sup> at 5 Gyr to finally reach a present value of -0.05 dex kpc<sup>-1</sup>. For the magnesium these gradient values are similar, being -0.143, -0.107 and -0.053 dex/kpc, respectively. Iron, on the other hand, is produced by type I supernova explosions from low mass stars, and as a result it is ejected much later. Thus the radial gradient of \[Fe/H\] remains steeper for a longer time: -0.148 dex/kpc at 2.5 Gyr, -0.124 at 5 Gyr and -0.07 at 13 Gyr.

As for the abundance levels, gas abundances appear to be less time-dependent for the inner than for the outer regions. This in turn suggests that stellar populations of different ages may have very nearly the same abundances in the inner regions, and a larger spread in the outer ones.

As expected, the relative abundance ratio \[Mg/Fe\] starts with a high value and decreases in time as the iron appears. The rate of decrease of \[Mg/Fe\] depends on the star formation rate. Stars form and die and in the process they increase the absolute amount of iron in the ISM. Clearly, if the star formation rate is lower, the rate of decline of \[Mg/Fe\] is lower and the initial high value of this ratio is maintained longer, as shown in panels c). In our models the star formation rate is higher in the inner regions than in the outer disk as shown in panel (b) of Figures 7,8 and 9; therefore the ratio \[Mg/Fe\] decreases rapidly in the inner disk, and maintains a larger value at larger radius. As a result, the (positive) radial gradient for the \[Mg/Fe\] ratio is larger at present than at early times, as seen in panel (d). Notice that the radial distributions of gas abundances are shown for four different ages, 2.5, 5, 8.5 and 13 Gyr.

In this section we have concentrated so far on the abundance of the gas. Let’s consider now star formation. Stellar populations must have the same abundances the gas had at the time these stars formed from it. We must keep in mind that stars are continuously forming in spiral disks, and that the star formation history is different at different galactocentric radii as already discussed. The inner regions of disks had formed a large number of stars during the first 3 Gyr and subsequently the rate declined abruptly, while in the periphery the number of stars formed now is similar to that of the last 8 Gyr. Therefore the stellar populations of the central regions were formed when iron abundances were still as low as \[Fe/H\]=-0.4, whereas \[O/H\] and \[Mg/H\] had already reached almost solar values. The outer regions, on the other hand, are forming stars even now and the \[Mg/Fe\] ratio has decreased as a result of the iron abundance accumulated in the ISM being large by now. We conclude that the spatial distribution of abundances for the stellar populations must be flatter than that of the gas. This is consistent with what we show in panel (d) of the same figures. The ongoing discussion reinforces the conclusion that the radial behavior of the \[Mg/Fe\] ratio depends strongly on the SFR and thus that our attempt at extracting this ratio from the integrated spectral indices of the stellar disk should produce a strong constraint to the models.

The preceding discussion shows why at the present time the stellar radial gradient in the mean iron abundance of the population, $`<[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]>`$, is smaller than the corresponding one for the gas. The stellar radial gradient of magnesium, on the other hand, has almost the same value as the present gradient of the gas abundance. This result is clearly seen in the case of NGC 4321, where the stellar mean iron abundance can be fitted with a straight line with a positive slope ($`+0.003`$ dex/kpc), while the stellar magnesium abundance has an almost (slightly negative) flat gradient ($``$ -0.0014 dex/kpc). The final result of evolution is a flattening in the iron index radial distribution and a steep radial gradient in the magnesium index Mg<sub>2</sub>.

Finally, we wish to add some comments on the overall time evolution of each of our program galaxies. We can see that NGC 4321 is a more evolved galaxy than NGC 4303 which is still forming stars. NGC 4535 has an intermediate behavior. It would therefore seem that the time evolution is determinated to a large extent by the total mass of each galaxy: NGC 4303 is the smaller, and therefore collapsed slower than the two other while maintaining the highest surface density of atomic gas at the maximum of the radial distribution. Moreover, as discussed in MFD97, this maximum moves outwards across the disk as time progresses and it is found at larger radius for more evolved galaxies. Following this argument we conclude that NGC 4303 is the less evolved of the three, whereas galaxies NGC 4321 and NGC 4535 are essentially at the same stage of evolution with a maximum located between 10 and 12 kpc. This is also shown by the molecular gas densities. In effect, NGC 4303 has the highest surface density, with NGC 4535 and NGC 4321 having lower central values. Thus NGC 4303 may still be able to consume a large quantity of molecular gas to form stars.

## 6 CONCLUSIONS

We have measured for the first time here and in Paper I integrated spectral indices over the disks of galaxies. These indices were used as additional constraints to the multiphase chemical evolution models. We have therefore added information on the past evolution of the gas and stars to that derived from the study of H ii regions, which belong to the youngest population. The latter provide a chemical composition in $`\alpha `$ elements which is the accumulated result of the chemical evolution of the galaxy over its entire history. Our indices, on the other hand, are related to a mean abundance weighted by the SFR, and correspond to an older mean age than that of H ii regions. Therefore, they provide the models with a different point in time, but at the expense of a complex strongly model-dependent transformation of indices into abundances. The extraction of abundances from H ii, on the other hand, is a comparatively simpler procedure which depends on reasonably well understood physics, but that can only provide the present-day abundance of the gas.

The multiphase chemical evolution model as implemented here fits radial distributions of diffuse gas densities quite well. Both molecular gas and star formation rate surface density are also well reproduced after assuming that star formation from cloud–cloud collisions has a radial dependence due to the effect of the velocity dispersion or, equivalently, that star formation is possible only after a threshold gas density is reached. Radial distributions of abundances show reasonable agreement with the data. However, the high oxygen abundances observed, mostly in the central regions, cannot be reproduced by our models. Probably, radial flows and/or gas lost must be included in order to reproduce the abundance observed in our Virgo cluster test galaxies.

We find that the abundance of the gas is larger in the inner regions of disks, but that the ages of the stellar populations created from this gas are different, being younger in the external regions than in the inner disk. In order to explain the radial gradients found from the absorption spectral index distributions, both the age and the metallicities of the stellar disk must be taken into account.

The abundances of both the gas and the stars are larger in the inner regions because there the star formation rate has a maximum which is both larger and earlier than the equivalent maximum of the outer regions. Stellar abundances have a flatter radial distribution than that of the gas at the present time, but this flattening is stronger for the iron than for the magnesium. As a result, the radial distributions of the magnesium feature are steeper than those of the iron index.

The effect of the environment on the chemical evolution must eventually be taken into account. It is not clear whether chemical abundances are affected by it (Shields, Skillman, & Kennicutt 1991; Henry 1993; Henry et al. 1992,1996; Henry, pagel, & Chincarini 1994). It seems clear however that there is a H i deficiency in cluster galaxies (Giovanelli & Haynes 1985) and that the radial distributions of diffuse gas seem more concentrated as if the gas was lost from the outer regions of disks.

Finally, an important parameter, not specifically included in the chemical evolution models described here is the existence of bars. Barred galaxies have a flatter radial gradient (Edmunds & Roy 1993; Martin & Roy 1992,1994,1995). It has been suggested (Friedli, Benz, & Kennicutt 1994; Friedli & Benz 1995; Roy 1996) that bars induce large–scale mixing as a result of radial flows. These radial flows produce a large accumulation of mass in the inner regions of the disk and, as a result, a burst of star formation. The final outcome is a flatter abundance gradient in the outer disk and a steepening of this gradient in the inner disk. It should be stressed that the multiphase model uses as input the total mass radial distribution, obtained from the rotation curve. But the possibility of a rotation curve changing with time as a result of dynamical processes such as radial flows of gas are not included in this model. This issue, as well as a study of the sensitivity of the models to the input parameters remains to be studied, and will be the subject of the next papers in this series.

M.Mollá acknowledges the Spanish Ministerio de Educación y Cultura for its support through a post-doctoral fellowship and to the astrophysics group of the Universit Laval for the nice work atmosphere during her stay in this group. E. Hardy acknowledges partial support from NSERC-Canada and from FCAR-Québec during the early stages of this investigation. We thank the referee, Daniel Friedli, for his useful comments. This research has made use of the NASA/IPAC Extra-galactic Database (NED), which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Caltech, under contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.     

FIGURE CAPTIONS

Figure 1. Predicted present–time radial distributions for NGC 4303: a) Oxygen abundance $`12+log(O/H)`$; b) Star Formation Rate surface density normalized to the ‘equivalent to solar region value’ $`\mathrm{\Psi }/\mathrm{\Psi }_0`$; c) diffuse or atomic gas H i and d) molecular gas H<sub>2</sub> surface densities. Model is represented by the solid line. Open symbols are the observational data.

Figure 2. The same as Figure 1 for NGC 4321.

Figure 3. The same as Figure 1 for NGC 4535.

Figure 4. Radial distributions of spectral indices for NGC 4303: a) Mg<sub>2</sub>, b) Fe5270. In both cases the predicted radial distributions are represented by the solid line. Open circles with error bars are observational data.

Figure 5. The same as Figure 4 for NGC 4321.

Figure 6. The same as Figure 4 for NGC 4535.

Figure 7. Time evolution for three different regions located in the inner, the medium and the outer disk of NGC 4303: a) magnesium (solid line) and iron (dashed line) abundances as $`12+log(X/H)`$; b) The star formation history $`log\mathrm{\Psi }/\mathrm{\Psi }_0`$, c) the relative abundance \[Mg/Fe\], d) the radial gradient of the relative abundance \[Mg/Fe\] for different times: the dotted line is the result for $`\mathrm{t}=2.5`$ Gyr, the dot-dashed line for $`\mathrm{t}=5`$ Gyr, and the dashed line for $`\mathrm{t}=8.5`$ Gyr. The present radial distribution is represented by the dot-long dashed line. The solid line is the mean stellar abundance.

Figure 8. The same as Figure 7 for NGC 4321.

Figure 9. The same as Figure 7 for NGC 4535.