Differential population synthesis of early-type galaxies. III. Synthesis results.

The results of synthesizing the nuclei of 17 early-type galaxies in the Fornax cluster which cover an absolute magnitude range of nearly 6 mag and well define the form and intrinsic width of the C-M diagram are presented. The synthesis technique and empirical tests of the optimization procedure used are described, and results of unconstrained syntheses are given. The important and as yet unresolved question of the evolutionary state of the bluest stellar component is discussed. Results of synthesized turnoff ages and mean metallicities are presented differentially as functions of galaxy luminosity and morphology. The results for the two faintest ellipticals, studied here, which have absolute magnitudes similar to that of M32, are compared to illustrate the importance of environment on these faint systems. A comparison of M/L limits derived via the synthesis technique with those determined dynamically is presented.