$\alpha$-MC: Self-consistent $\alpha$-enhanced stellar population models covering a wide range of age, metallicity, and wavelength

Abstract

We present new stellar population models, $\alpha$-MC, self-consistently taking into account non-solar $\rm [\alpha/Fe]$ abundances for both isochrones and stellar spectra. The $\alpha$-MC models are based on $\alpha$-enhanced MIST isochrones and C3K spectral libraries, which are publicly available in FSPS. Our new models cover a wide range of ages ($\rm \log (age/yr) = 5.0 - 10.3$), metallicities ($\rm [Fe/H]=[-2.5,+0.5]$ in steps of 0.25, $\rm [\alpha/Fe]=-0.2,+0.0,+0.2,+0.4,+0.6$), and wavelengths ($0.1-2.5\,\rm \mu m$). We investigate the separate and combined effects of $\alpha$-enhanced isochrones and stellar spectral libraries on simple stellar populations (SSPs), including their broadband colors, spectral indices, and full spectra. We find that the primary effect of $\alpha$-enhancement in isochrones is to lower the overall continuum levels and redden the continuum shapes, while $\alpha$-enhancement in stellar spectra mainly affects individual spectral lines. At constant $\rm [Fe/H]$, $\alpha$-enhancement has significant impacts on the broadband colors by $\rm \sim 0.1-0.4\,mag$ across all ages ($\rm 0.01 - 10\,Gyr$). The effects of $\alpha$-enhancement on colors at fixed $\rm [Z/H]$ are smaller, by $\rm \sim 0.1-0.2\,mag$. The spectral indices involving $\alpha$-elements, Ca4227 and Mg b, increase with $\rm [\alpha/Fe]$ (both at fixed $\rm [Fe/H]$ and fixed $\rm [Z/H]$) due to enhanced $\alpha$-abundances. At constant $\rm [Fe/H]$, $\alpha$-enhancement weakens most Fe-sensitive and Hydrogen Balmer lines. Our new self-consistent $\alpha$-enhanced models will be essential in deriving accurate physical properties of high-redshift galaxies, where $\alpha$-enhancement is expected to be common.