We present the surface brightness profile of M31's stellar halo out to a projected radius of 175 kpc. The surface brightness estimates are based on confirmed samples of M31 red giant branch stars derived from Keck/DEIMOS spectroscopic observations. A set of empirical spectroscopic and photometric M31 membership diagnostics is used to identify and reject foreground and background contaminants. This enables us to trace the stellar halo of M31 to larger projected distances and fainter surface brightnesses than previous photometric studies. The surface brightness profile of M31's halo follows a power-law with index −2.2 ± 0.2 and extends to a projected distance of at least ∼ 175 kpc (∼ 2/3 of M31's virial radius), with no evidence of a downward break at large radii. The best-fit elliptical isophotes have b/a = 0.94 with the major axis of the halo aligned along the minor axis of M31's disk, consistent with a prolate halo, although the data are also consistent with M31's halo having spherical symmetry. The fact that tidal debris features are kinematically cold is used to identify substructure in the spectroscopic fields out to projected radii of 90 kpc, and investigate the effect of this substructure on the surface brightness profile. The scatter in the surface brightness profile is reduced when kinematically identified tidal debris features in M31 are statistically subtracted; the remaining profile indicates that a comparatively diffuse stellar component to M31's stellar halo exists to large distances. Beyond 90 kpc, kinematically cold tidal debris features can not be identified due to small number statistics; nevertheless, the significant field-to-field variation in surface brightness beyond 90 kpc suggests that the outermost region of M31's halo is also comprised to a significant degree of stars stripped from accreted objects.

We present the metallicity distribution of red giant branch (RGB) stars in M31's stellar halo, derived from photometric metallicity estimates for over 1500 spectroscopically confirmed RGB halo stars. The stellar sample comes from 38 halo fields observed with the Keck/DEIMOS spectrograph, ranging from 9 to 175 kpc in projected distance from M31's center, and includes 52 confirmed M31 halo stars beyond 100 kpc. While a wide range of metallicities is seen throughout the halo, the metalrich peak of the metallicity distribution function becomes significantly less prominent with increasing radius. The metallicity profile of M31's stellar halo shows a continuous gradient from 9 to ∼ 100 kpc, with a magnitude of ∼ −0.01 dex kpc −1 . The stellar velocity distributions in each field are used to identify stars that are likely associated with tidal debris features. The removal of tidal debris features does not significantly alter the metallicity gradient in M31's halo: a gradient is maintained in fields spanning 10 to 90 kpc. We analyze the halo metallicity profile, as well as the relative metallicities of stars associated with tidal debris features and the underlying halo population, in the context of current simulations of stellar halo formation. We argue that the large scale gradient in M31's halo implies M31 accreted at least one relatively massive progenitor in the past, while the field to field variation seen in the metallicity profile indicates that multiple smaller progenitors are likely to have contributed substantially to M31's outer halo.

As part of our survey of galactic stellar halos, we investigate the structure and stellar populations of the northern outer part of the stellar halo in NGC 55, a member galaxy of the Sculptor Group, using deep and wide-field V -and I-band images taken with Subaru/Suprime-Cam. Based on the analysis of the color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) for red-giant-branch (RGB) stars, we derive a tip of RGB (TRGB)-based distance modulus to the galaxy of (m−M ) 0 = 26.58±0.11(d = 2.1±0.1Mpc). From the stellar density maps, we detect the asymmetrically disturbed, thick disk structure and two metal-poor overdense substructures in the north region of NGC 55, which may correspond to merger remnants associated with hierarchical formation of NGC 55's halo. In addition, we identify a diffuse metal-poor halo extended out to at least z ∼ 16 kpc from the galactic plane. The surface-brightness profiles toward the z-direction perpendicular to the galactic plane suggest that the stellar density distribution in the northern outer part of NGC 55 is described by a locally isothermal disk at z < ∼ 6 kpc and a likely diffuse metal-poor halo with V -band surface brightness of µ V > ∼ 32 mag arcsec −2 , where old RGB stars dominate. We derive the metallicity distributions (MDs) of these structures on the basis of the photometric comparison of RGB stars with the theoretical stellar evolutionary models. The MDs of the thick disk structures show the peak and mean metallicity of [Fe/H] peak ∼ −1.4 and [Fe/H] mean ∼ −1.7, respectively, while the outer substructures show more metal-poor features than the thick disk structure. Combined with the current results with our previous study for M31's halo, we discuss the possible difference in the formation process of stellar halos among different Hubble types.

The halo of M31 shows a wealth of substructures, some of which are consistent with assembly from satellite accretion. Here we report on kinematic and abundance results from Keck DEIMOS spectroscopy in the near-infrared calcium triplet region of over 3500 red giant star candidates along the minor axis and in off-axis spheroid fields of M31. These data reach out to large radial distances of about 160 kpc. The derived radial velocity distributions show an indication of a kinematically cold substructure around $17 kpc, which has been reported before. We devise a new and improved method to measure spectroscopic metallicities from the calcium triplet in low signal-to-noise ratio spectra using a weighted co-addition of the individual lines. The resulting distribution (accurate to $0.3 dex down to signal-tonoise ratios of 5) leads us to note an even stronger gradient in the abundance distribution along M31's minor axis and in particular toward the outer halo fields than previously detected. The mean metallicity in the outer fields reaches below À2 dex, with individual values as low as PÀ2.6 dex. This is the first time such a metal-poor halo has been detected in M31. In the fields toward the inner spheroid, we find a sharp decline of $0.5 dex in metallicity in a region at $20 kpc, which roughly coincides with the edge of an extended disk, previously detected from star count maps. A large fraction of red giants that we detect in the most distant fields are likely members of M33's overlapping halo. A comparison of our velocities with those predicted by new N-body simulations argues that the event responsible for the Giant Stream is most likely not responsible for the full population of the inner halo. We show further that the abundance distribution of the Stream is different from that of the inner halo, from which it becomes evident, in turn, that the merger event that formed the Stream and the outer halo cannot have contributed any significant material to the inner spheroid. All these severe structure changes in the halo suggest a high degree of infall and stochastic abundance accretion governing the buildup of M31's inner and outer halo.

Using the HST ACS, we have obtained deep optical images reaching well below the oldest main sequence turnoff in fields on the southeast minor-axis of the Andromeda Galaxy, 35 kpc from the nucleus. These data probe the star formation history in the extended halo of Andromeda -that region beyond 30 kpc that appears both chemically and morphologically distinct from the metal-rich, highly-disturbed inner spheroid. The present data, together with our previous data for fields at 11 and 21 kpc, do not show a simple trend toward older ages and lower metallicities, as one might expect for populations further removed from the obvious disturbances of the inner spheroid. Specifically, the mean ages and [Fe/H] values at 11 kpc, 21 kpc, and 35 kpc are 9.7 Gyr and −0.65, 11.0 Gyr and −0.87, and 10.5 Gyr and −0.98, respectively. In the best-fit model of the 35 kpc population, one third of the stars are younger than 10 Gyr, while only ∼10% of the stars are truly ancient and metal-poor. The extended halo thus exhibits clear evidence of its hierarchical assembly, and the contribution from any classical halo formed via early monolithic collapse must be small.