The elemental abundance of quiescent galaxies in the LEGA-C survey: the (non-)evolution of α/Fe from z = 0.75 to z = 0

ABSTRACT We measure the α/Fe abundances for 183 quiescent galaxies at z = 0.60−0.75 with stellar masses ranging 10.4 ≤ log10(M*/M⊙) ≤ 11.6 selected from the Large Early Galaxy Astrophysics Census survey. We estimate α/Fe from the ratio of the spectral indices Mgb (λ ∼ 5177 Å) and Fe4383, compared to predictions of simple stellar population models. We find that 91 per cent of quiescents in our sample have supersolar α/Fe, with an average value of α/Fe = +0.24 ± 0.01. We find no significant correlation between α/Fe and stellar metallicity, mass, velocity dispersion, and average formation time. Galaxies that formed the bulk of their stellar mass on time-scales shorter than 1 Gyr follow the same α/Fe distribution as those which formed on longer time-scales. In comparison to local early-type galaxies and to stacked spectra of quiescent galaxies at z = 0.38 and z = 0.07, we find that the average α/Fe has not changed between z = 0.75 and the present time. Our work shows that the vast majority of massive quiescent galaxies at z ∼ 0.7 are α-enhanced, and that no detectable evolution of the average α/Fe has taken place over the last ∼6.5 Gyr.