Program: GN-2010A-Q-60

We plan to determine the main physical drivers governing the formation of S0 systems, and their dependency on galaxy mass. To this end, we are carrying out a spectral study of 21 lenticular systems to establish the links between the properties of their stellar populations (ages and chemical abundances) and their kinematic properties (masses and dynamics). GMOS long-slit spectroscopy will allow us to measure kinematics and line strengths out to large radii. We will combine this information with available HST photometry and analyse it using detailed dynamical and stellar population models. Existing data already hint at interesting correlations between these properties, but this much larger sample spans a factor of 20 in luminosity and two orders of magnitude in dynamical mass, and will quadruple the number of objects for which the requisite observations exist, allowing us to make the first definitive study of these clues to the formation of S0 galaxies.