Demography of SDSS Early-type galaxies from the perspective of radial color gradients

We have studied the radial g-r color gradients of early-type galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) DR6 in the redshift range 0.00 < z < 0.06. The color profiles of ~30 per cent of the galaxies in this sample show positive color gradients (centers being bluer). These positive gradient galaxies often show strong $H\beta$ absorption line strengths or emission line ratios that are consistent with star-forming populations. Combining the optical data with Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) UV photometry, we find that all positive gradient galaxies show blue UV-optical colors. They also exhibit a tendency of having a lower stellar velocity dispersion. Positive gradient galaxies tend to live in lower density regions than negative gradient galaxies and are likely to have a late-type companion galaxy. On the other hand, massive early-type galaxies show negative color gradients. A simplistic population analysis shows that these positive color gradients are visible only for half a billion years after a star burst. Although the effective radius decreases and mean surface brightness increases due to this centrally concentrated star formation, the positions of the positive gradient galaxies on the fundamental plane cannot be reproduced by any amount of recent star formation. Instead it required a lower velocity dispersion.