Ages, metallicities, and α-element enhancement for galaxies in Hickson compact groups

Central velocity dispersions and eight line-strength Lick indices have been determined from 1.3 angstrom resolution long-slit spectra of 16 elliptical galaxies in Hickson compact groups. These data were used to determine galaxy properties ( ages, metallicities, and alpha-element enhancements) and allowed a comparison with the parameters determined for a sample of galaxies in lower density environments studied by Gonzalez. The stellar population parameters were derived by comparison to single stellar population models of Thomas et al. and to a new set of simple stellar population models for the indices Mg-2, Fe5270, and Fe5335 based on synthetic spectra. These models, based on an updated version of the fitting functions presented in Barbuy et al., are fully described here. Our main results are ( 1) the two samples have similar mean values for the metallicities and [alpha/Fe] ratios and ( 2) the majority of the galaxies in compact groups seem to be old ( median age of 14 Gyr for eight galaxies for which ages could be derived), in agreement with recent work by Proctor et al. These findings support two possible scenarios: compact groups are either young systems whose members have recently assembled and had not enough time to experience any merging yet, or they are old systems that have avoided merging since their time of formation.