The Chemical Abundances of the Stellar Populations in the Leo I and Leo II dSph Galaxies

Abstract

We have obtained spectra of 102 red giant branch (RGB) stars in the Leo I dwarf spheroidal galaxy (dSph) and 74 RGB stars in the Leo II dSph using LRIS on the Keck I 10-meter Telescope. We report on the calcium abundances [Ca/H] derived from the strengths of the Ca II triplet absorption lines at 8498, 8542, 8662 angstroms in the stellar spectra using a new Ca II triplet calibration to [Ca/H]. The two galaxies have different average [Ca/H] values of -1.34 +/- 0.02 for Leo I and -1.65 +/- 0.02 for LeoII with intrinsic abundance dispersions of 1.2 and 1.0 dex, respectively. The typical random and total errors in derived abundances are 0.10 and 0.17 dex per star. For comparison to existing literature, we also converted our Ca II measurements to [Fe/H] on the scale of Carretta and Gratton (1997) though we discuss why this may not be the best determinant of metallicity; Leo I has a mean [Fe/H] = -1.34 and Leo II has a mean [Fe/H] = -1.59. The metallicity distribution function of Leo I is approximately Gaussian in shape with an excess at the metal-rich end, while that of Leo II shows an abrupt cutoff at the metal-rich end. The lower mean metallicity of Leo II is consistent with the fact that it has a lower luminosity, hence lower total mass, than Leo I; thus the evolution of Leo II may have been affected more by mass lost in galactic winds. We compare our observed metallicity distribution functions to those inferred by Dolphin (2002) from modelling of deep CMDs obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. The models predict a median metallicity that is systematically more metal-rich than observed, by 0.36 dex in the Leo I dSph, and by 0.49 dex in the Leo II dSph. We show that differences this large are not likely caused by non-solar [Ca/Fe] in the dSph stars.