PI: Peter Pessev, Gemini South Observatory, email@example.com
Address: Casilla 603, La Serena, Chile
CoI: Roberto De Propris, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
Title: Do Galaxies care about AGB stars ?
Abstract: We propose to use Gemini North and GNIRS to obtain H-band spectra of bright E+A galaxies from the Sloan sample. These objects have been recently studied spectroscopically and their stellar populations decomposed. Our aim is to verify the contribution to the spectrum from TP-AGB stars and the correlation between these stars and a young stellar population. This is important as it is expected that these massive AGB stars have a profound influence on the spectral energy distribution of distant galaxies and make them appear older and more massive than they otherwise are. Our data will allow us to directly constrain this hypothesis and estimate the importance of this poorly understood phase of stellar evolution to spectrum synthesis modeling.
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