An atlas of synthetic spectra of galaxies

Evolutionary synthetic spectra of galaxies extended from far-UV (1220A) to 1 μm with a spectral resolution of 10 A are computed with our model of spectrophotometric evolution (Guiderdoni and Rocca-Volmerange, 1987). The standard scenarios of evolution describe the Hubble sequence (from irregular to elliptical galaxies and burst) by varying the time scale of gas consumption due to star formation and the age, with a constant initial mass function (Scalo, 1986, for the massive stars) and a solar mean metallicity. Some other specific features characterize our model: (i) A complete observational stellar library is based on published IUE spectral atlases and Gunn and Stryker, 1983. (ii) The Asymptotic Giant Branch is included in the stages of the stellar tracks. (iii) The UV excess of E/S0 galaxies is produced from a star-forming model. For each scenario, a nebular component (continuum and lines) is estimated from Mihalas' atmosphere models and Stasinska's photoionization models. Equivalent widths of some hydrogen and oxygen nebular lines are given. Spectra and lines are reddened with an internal extinction consistent with the gas content. Such a catalogue published in numerical form can be a help for any problem related to the intrinsic evolution of galaxies. In particular, the prediction and interpretation of the observations of high-redshift galaxies are possible by means of tables of k-corrections and corresponding evolutionary corrections based on the synthetic spectra, which are given for two cosmological models