We present results from a pilot study of radial stellar population trends in early-type galaxies using the VLT VIMOS integral field unit ( IFU ) .
We observe twelve galaxies in the cluster Abell 3389 ( z \approx 0.027 ) .
For each galaxy , we measure 22 line-strength indices in multiple radial bins out to at least the effective radius .
We derive stellar population parameters using a grid inversion technique , and calculate the radial gradients in age , metallcity and \alpha -abundance .
Generally , the galaxies in our sample have flat radial trends in age and [ \alpha /Fe ] , but negative gradients in [ Z/H ] ( –0.20 \pm 0.05 dex ) .
Combining our targets with two similar , long-slit studies to increase sample size , we find that the gradients are not correlated with the central velocity dispersion or K -band luminosity ( both proxies for galaxy mass ) .
However , we find that the age and metallicity gradients are both anti-correlated with their respective central values ( to > 4 \sigma ) , such that galaxies with young cores have steeper positive age gradients , and those with metal-rich centres have strong negative [ Z/H ] gradients .