Stellar Population in a High Density Environment: Elliptical Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

The Coma cluster is an ideal place to study galaxy properties as a function of environmental density in order to constrain theories of galaxy formation and evolution. Here we present a spectral analysis of a magnitude limited sample of 35 E and S0 galaxies. To investigate environmental effects we choose a sample that spans 3 dex in cluster density. We derived major axis profiles for the line indices Mg, Fe and Hβ (Faber et al., 1985, ApJS, 57, 711) as well as the stellar rotation and velocity dispersion profiles to a limit of 2 re for most of the galaxies. Using Worthey’s (1994, ApJS, 95, 105) simple stellar population models, we estimated age and metallicity distribution in these galaxies.