The Gemini/HST Galaxy Cluster Project: Environment Effects on the Stellar Populations in the Lynx Clusters at z = 1.27

Few detailed investigations of stellar populations in passive galaxies beyond z~1 are based on deep spectroscopic observations, due to the difficulty in obtaining such data. We present a study of stellar populations, structure, and mass-to-light ratios of a large sample of bulge-dominated galaxies in the two z=1.27 clusters Lynx E and Lynx W, based on deep ground-based optical spectroscopy combined with imaging from Hubble Space Telescope. We find that Lynx E has a well-defined core of red passive galaxies, while Lynx W lacks such a core. If all the sample galaxies evolve similarly in size from z=1.27 to the present, the data allow only 0.1 dex size-growth at a fixed dynamical mass. However, to link the Lynx central galaxies to brightest cluster galaxies similar to those of low redshift clusters, the Lynx galaxies would have to grow by at least a factor five, possibly through major merging. The mass-to-light ratios and the Balmer absorption lines of the Lynx galaxies are consistent with passive evolution of the stellar populations from z=1.27 to the present and support ages of 1--3 Gyr. The galaxies in the outskirts of the clusters contain younger stellar populations than found in the cluster cores. However, when evolved passively to z~0 both populations are consistent with the observed populations in the Coma cluster galaxies. The bulge-dominated emission line galaxies in the clusters are dominated by stellar populations with sub-solar metallicities. Thus, additional enrichment of these is required to produce Coma-like stellar populations by z~0.