STELLAR POPULATIONS AND EVOLUTION OF EARLY-TYPE CLUSTER GALAXIES: CONSTRAINTS FROM OPTICAL IMAGING AND SPECTROSCOPY OF z=0.5-0.9 GALAXY CLUSTERS

We present an analysis of stellar populations and evolutionary history of galaxies in three similarly rich galaxy clusters MS0451.6-0305 (z = 0.54), RXJ0152.7-1357 (z = 0.83), and RXJ1226.9+3332 (z = 0.89). Our analysis is based on high signal-to-noise ground-based optical spectroscopy and Hubble Space Telescope imaging for a total of 17-34 members in each cluster. Using the dynamical masses together with the effective radii and the velocity dispersions, we find no indication of evolution of sizes or velocity dispersions with redshift at a given galaxy mass. We establish the Fundamental Plane (FP) and scaling relations between absorption line indices and velocity dispersions. We confirm that the FP is steeper at z approximate to 0.86 compared to the low-redshift FP, indicating that under the assumption of passive evolution the formation redshift, z(form), depends on the galaxy velocity dispersion (or alternatively mass). At a velocity dispersion of sigma = 125 km s(-1) (Mass = 10(10.55) M-circle dot) we find z(form) = 1.24 +/- 0.05, while at sigma = 225 km s(-1) (Mass = 10(11.36)M(circle dot)) the formation redshift is z(form) = 1.95(-0.2)(+0.3) , for a Salpeter initial mass function. The three clusters follow similar scaling relations between absorption line indices and velocity dispersions as those found for low-redshift galaxies. The zero point offsets for the Balmer lines depend on cluster redshifts. However, the offsets indicate a slower evolution, and therefore higher formation redshift, than the zero point differences found from the FP, if interpreting the data using a passive evolution model. Specifically, the strength of the higher order Balmer lines H delta and H gamma implies z(form) > 2.8. The scaling relations for the metal indices in general show small and in some cases insignificant zero point offsets, favoring high formation redshifts for a passive evolution model. Based on the absorption line indices and recent stellar population models from Thomas et al., we find that MS0451.6-0305 has a mean metallicity [M/H] approximately 0.2 dex below that of the other clusters and our low-redshift sample. We confirm our previous result that RXJ0152.7-1357 has a mean abundance ratio [alpha/Fe] approximately 0.3 dex higher than that of the other clusters. The differences in [M/H] and [alpha/Fe] between the high-redshift clusters and the low-redshift sample are inconsistent with a passive evolution scenario for early-type cluster galaxies over the redshift interval studied. Low-level star formation may be able to bring the metallicity of MS0451.6-0305 in agreement with the low-redshift sample, while we speculate whether galaxy mergers can lead to sufficiently large changes in the abundance ratios for the RXJ0152.7-1357 galaxies to allow them to reach the low-redshift sample values in the time available.