NICMOS Imaging of DRGs in the HDF-S: A Relation between Star Formation and Size at z ~ 2.5

By Andrew Zirm, A. V. D. Wel, M. Franx, I. Labbé, I. Trujillo, P. V. van Dokkum, S. Toft, E. Daddi, G. Rudnick, H. Rix and 2 more. 2006

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We present deep, high angular-resolution HST NICMOS imaging in the Hubble Deep Field South (HDF-S), focusing on a subset of 14 distant red galaxies (DRGs) at z ~ 2.5 that have been preselected to have J - K > 2.3. We find a clear trend between the rest-frame optical sizes of these sources and their luminosity-weighted stellar ages as inferred from their broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs). Galaxies whose SEDs are consistent with being dusty and actively star-forming generally show extended morphologies in the NICMOS images (re ≳ 2 kpc), while the five sources that are not vigorously forming stars are extremely compact (re ≲ 1 kpc). This trend suggests a direct link between the mean ages of the stars and the size and density of the galaxies and supports the conjecture that early events quench star formation and leave compact remnants. Furthermore, the compact galaxies have stellar surface mass densities that exceed those of local galaxies by more than an order of magnitude. The existence of such massive dense galaxies presents a problem for models of early-type galaxy formation and evolution. Larger samples of DRGs and higher spatial resolution imaging will allow us to determine the universality of the results presented here for a small sample.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

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Citations in the corpus

Structure and Kinematics of Early-Type Galaxies from Integral Field Spectroscopy (2016, background): “However their sizes were found to be significantly smaller that their local counterparts (Daddi et al. 2005; Trujillo et al. 2006a,b, 2007; Zirm et al. 2007; Toft et al. 2007; Longhetti et al. 2007; Cimatti et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008).”
Dissecting the size evolution of elliptical galaxies since z∼ 1: puffing-up versus minor-merging scenarios (2011, background): “…spheroid-like galaxies were significantly more compact at higher redshift (e.g. Daddi et al. 2005; Trujillo et al. 2006b; Longhetti et al. 2007; Zirm et al. 2007; van der Wel et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008; Cimatti et al. 2008; Damjanov et al. 2009; Carrasco, Conselice & Trujillo 2010),…”
Compact high-redshift galaxies are the cores of the most massive present-day spheroids (2009, methodology): “For example, Zirm et al. (2007) stack ∼14 high-redshift (z 2) systems identified as compact (gaining roughly an additional μ ∼ 1.5), and see no significant change in the Sersic profile or size (relative to the luminosity-weighted average size of the individual fits).”
The Dramatic Size Evolution of Elliptical Galaxies and the Quasar Feedback (2008, background): “INTRODUCTION Several recent observational studies have found that massive, passively evolving, galaxies atz > 1 are much more compact than local galaxies of analogous stellar mass (Ferguson et al. 2004; Trujillo et al. 2004, 2007; Zirm et al. 2007; Cimatti et al. 2008; Damjanov et al. 2008).”
The sizes, masses and specific star formation rates of massive galaxies at 1.3 < z < 1.5: strong evidence in favour of evolution via minor mergers (2012, background): “In addition, it is now well established that, within a given redshift and stellar-mass interval, early-type/passive galaxies are more compact than late-type/star-forming galaxies (e.g. Zirm et al. 2007; Toft et al. 2009; Williams et al. 2010; Wuyts et al. 2011).”
THE SCUBA-2 COSMOLOGY LEGACY SURVEY: ALMA RESOLVES THE REST-FRAME FAR-INFRARED EMISSION OF SUB-MILLIMETER GALAXIES (2014, background): “…the population of quiescent galaxies at redshift z = 1–3 is that they are extremely compact, with half-light sizes of ∼ 1 kpc 19 (e.g. Daddi et al. 2005; Zirm et al. 2007; Toft et al. 2007; Buitrago et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008; Newman et al. 2012; Patel et al. 2013; Krogager et al. 2013).”
Strong size evolution of the most massive galaxies since z~2 (2007, background): “At even higher z (i.e. z∼2.5) there has been also recent claims of very compacts (re.1 kpc) massive galaxies (Trujillo et al. 2006a; Zirm et al. 2007; Toft et al. 2007).”
Size Evolution of the Most Massive Galaxies at 1.7 < z < 3 from GOODS NICMOS Survey Imaging (2008, background): “…galaxies at z > 1 were extremely compact (Daddi et al. 2005; Trujillo et al. 2006b, 2007; Longhetti et al. 2007), particularly those with the lowest estimated star formation rates (Zirm et al. 2007; Toft et al. 2007; Cimatti et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008; Pérez-González et al. 2008).”
Submillimeter Galaxies at z ~ 2: Evidence for Major Mergers and Constraints on Lifetimes, IMF, and CO-H2 Conversion Factor (2008, background): “Relationship to Compact Quiescent Galaxies at z 1:4Y2:6 Recent HST and ground-based studies show that most of the apparentlymassive (K 20Y21) passively evolving (= ‘‘quiescent,’’ ‘‘passively’’ evolving, or ‘‘red-sequence’’) galaxies in the same redshift range as the SMGs are remarkably compact (Dadd”
ON THE DEARTH OF COMPACT, MASSIVE, RED SEQUENCE GALAXIES IN THE LOCAL UNIVERSE (2009, result): “…no ongoing star formation and z & 2, these results confirm and consolidate the work of Daddi et al. (2005), Trujillo et al. (2006), Trujillo et al. (2007), Zirm et al. (2007), and Toft et al. (2007), as well as 1 < z < 2 results from, e.g., Longhetti et al. (2007) and Saracco et al. (2009), and z .”
How do minor mergers promote inside-out growth of ellipticals, transforming the size, density profile and dark matter fraction? (2012, background): “…and a factor of two less massive than their low redshift descendants (Daddi et al. 2005; Trujillo 2006; Longhetti et al. 2007; Toft et al. 2007; Zirm et al. 2007; Trujillo et al. 2007; Zirm et al. 2007; Buitrago et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008; Cimatti et al. 2008; Franx et al. 2008;…”
Discriminating Between the Physical Processes that Drive Spheroid Size Evolution (2009, background): “…massive (M∗ ∼ 1011 M ) galaxies are compiled in van der Wel et al. (2008); we adopt their compilation (see Trujillo et al. 2006a; Longhetti et al. 2007; Toft et al. 2007; Zirm et al. 2007; Buitrago et al. 2008; Cimatti et al. 2008; Franx et al. 2008; Rettura et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008).”
The VISTA deep extragalactic observations (VIDEO) survey (2012, background): “Given the seeing constraints (see Section 5) and accounting for the apparent size evolution of massive passive galaxies at high redshift (e.g. Zirm et al. 2007; van Dokkum et al. 2010; McLure et al. 2012), we therefore define our 5σ Ks-band limit as Ks = 23.5 in a 2 arcsec diameter aperture.”
THE COSMOLOGICAL SIZE AND VELOCITY DISPERSION EVOLUTION OF MASSIVE EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES (2011, background): “…are at least one order of magnitude higher (Daddi et al. 2005; Trujillo et al. 2006; Longhetti et al. 2007; Toft et al. 2007; Trujillo et al. 2007; Zirm et al. 2007; Buitrago et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008; Cimatti et al. 2008; Franx et al. 2008; Saracco et al. 2009; Bezanson et al. 2009;…”
ON SIZES, KINEMATICS, M/L GRADIENTS, AND LIGHT PROFILES OF MASSIVE COMPACT GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2 (2010, background): “…observational studies find galaxies, and especially quiescent galaxies, to grow significantly in size as time progresses (e.g., Trujillo et al. 2006; Toft et al. 2007; Zirm et al. 2007; van Dokkum et al. 2008; Cimatti et al. 2008; van der Wel et al. 2008; Franx et al. 2008; Buitrago et al. 2008).”
Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Imaging of Red and Blue Galaxies at z ~ 2.5: A Correlation between Size and Star Formation Activity from Compact Quiescent Galaxies to Extended Star-forming Galaxies (2007, methodology): “It is, however, unlikely that a significant number of such galaxies were missed, given that no such galaxies were found in the much deeper FIRES HDF-S observations (Labbé et al. 2003), in the HDF-N (Dickinson 2000), or in the HUDF (Toft et al. 2005).”
A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies. II. Formation of Red Ellipticals (2007, background): “…to note that a significant number of these high-redshift systems have been spectroscopically confirmed as passive, red and dead systems (Kriek et al. 2006; Wuyts et al. 2007) with elliptical morphologies (Zirm et al. 2007) and relatively old ages ( a few ; 108 yr, or 1 5 tH at these redshifts).”
AN ULTRA-DEEP NEAR-INFRARED SPECTRUM OF A COMPACT QUIESCENT GALAXY AT z = 2.2 (2009, background): “…stellar densities that are about 2 orders of magnitude larger than in local early type galaxies of similar mass (e.g., Trujillo et al. 2006, 2007; Zirm et al. 2007; Toft et al. 2007; Longhetti et al. 2007; van Dokkum et al. 2008; Cimatti et al. 2008) Follow-up spectroscopic studies have tried to…”
The DEEP3 Galaxy Redshift Survey: the impact of environment on the size evolution of massive early-type galaxies at intermediate redshift (2011, background): “…populations and remarkably small sizes relative to their local counterparts (e.g. Daddi et al. 2005; Labbé et al. 2005; Kriek et al. 2006; Papovich et al. 2006; Trujillo et al. 2006, 2007; Zirm et al. 2007; van Dokkum et al. 2008; Damjanov et al. 2009, 2011; Toft et al. 2009; Taylor et al. 2010).”