Evolution since z = 1 of the Morphology-Density Relation for Galaxies

By Graham P. Smith, T. Treu, Richard S. Ellis, S. M. Moran, A. Dressler. 2004

179 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We measure the morphology-density relation of galaxies at z = 1 across the full 3 orders of magnitude in projected galaxy density available in low-redshift studies. Our study adopts techniques that are comparable with those applied at lower redshifts, allowing a direct investigation of how the morphological segregation of galaxies has evolved over the last 8 Gyr. Although the morphology-density relation, as described by the fraction of early-type (E+S0) galaxies, was in place at z = 1, its form differs from that observed at both z = 0 and z = 0.5. In the highest density regions the early-type fraction has increased steadily with time from fE+S0 = 0.7 ± 0.1 at z = 1 to fE+S0 = 0.9 ± 0.1 at the present epoch. However, in intermediate-density regions corresponding to groups and the accretion regions of rich clusters, significant evolution appears to begin only after z = 0.5. Finally, at the lowest densities, no evolution is observed for the early-type fraction of field galaxies, which remains constant at fE+S0 = 0.4 ± 0.1 at all epochs. We examine a simple picture consistent with these observations where the early-type population at z = 1 is comprised largely of elliptical galaxies. Subsequent evolution in both intermediate and dense regions is attributed to the transformation of spirals into lenticulars. Further progress in verifying our hypothesis may be achieved through distinguishing ellipticals and lenticulars at these redshifts through resolved dynamical studies of representative systems.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/66ece1b3045fc618575699160b9ad830b9f59a8b

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Instrumentation

Citations in the corpus

SPECTROSCOPIC CONFIRMATION OF TWO MASSIVE RED-SEQUENCE-SELECTED GALAXY CLUSTERS AT z ∼ 1.2 IN THE SpARCS-NORTH CLUSTER SURVEY (2008, background): “…the SFR (e.g., Elbaz et al. 2007; Cooper et al. 2008; Poggianti et al. 2008), color (e.g., Cooper et al. 2007) and morphology (e.g., Dressler et al. 1997; Postman et al. 2005; Smith et al. 2005, Capak et al. 2007) are still correlated with local density, albeit differently from the nearby universe.”
The Build-up of the Colour-Magnitude Relation (2005, background): “For example, the morphology–density relation is found to evolve (Dressler et al. 1997; Fasano et al. 2000; Treu et al. 2003; Smith et al. 2005, but see also Andreon 1998).”
EVOLUTION OF THE COLOR–MAGNITUDE RELATION IN GALAXY CLUSTERS AT z ∼ 1 FROM THE ACS INTERMEDIATE REDSHIFT CLUSTER SURVEY (2008, background): “In this light, it is significant that a decrease in the S0 population is observed in high redshift clusters (e.g. Dressler et al. 1999; Smith et al. 2005; Postman et al. 2005; Desai et al. 2007); one explanation is that late–type galaxies falling into the cluster potential ar X iv :0 81 0.”
Tracking the impact of environment on the galaxy stellar mass function up to z ~ 1 in the 10 k zCOSMOS sample (2009, background): “It is possible thate transformation of morphology occurs on longer timescales than colour one (Capak et al. 2007a; Smith et al. 2005; Bamford et al. 2009; Wolf et al. 2009), as inferred also from the study of post-starburst galaxies selected in the same zCOSMOS sample (Vergani et al. 2009) or…”
The DEEP2 galaxy redshift survey: evolution of the colour–density relation at 0.4 < z < 1.35 (2006, background): “For example, building upon the work of Dressler et al. (1997), Smith et al. (2005) and Postman et al. (2005) find that the fraction of early–type galaxies increases steadily with density in cluster environments out to z ∼ 1, with the strength of the correlation weaker at z ∼ 1 than in local samples.”
The Morphology-Density Relation in z ~ 1 Clusters (2005, background): “Several pioneering works have now shed light on this evolution (Dressler et al. 1997, hereafter D97; Fasano et al. 2000; Treu et al. 2003; Smith et al. 2005, hereafter S05).”
A Study of Compact Object Mergers as Short Gamma-Ray Burst Progenitors (2006, background): “…star formation rate is expected to be rather different in ellipticals and in spirals, since most ellipticals were assembled before z ∼ 2 and they are no longer forming stars, while spirals and starbursts galaxies have an on-going and active star formation (see Smith et al. 2005 for a discussion).”
The ATLAS3D project - VII. A new look at the morphology of nearby galaxies: the kinematic morphology-density relation (2011, background): “…classified as ellipticals, suggesting that the most massive galaxies are already in place beyondz ∼ 1 (Stanford et al. 1998; Postman et al. 2005; Tasca et al. 2009), while most of the observed evolution consists of a transformation of spirals into S0s (Smith et al. 2005; Moran et al. 2007).”
A Wide-Field Survey of Two z ~ 0.5 Galaxy Clusters: Identifying the Physical Processes Responsible for the Observed Transformation of Spirals into S0s (2007, background): “Further complicating the picture, the large scale assembly states of clusters show considerable variety (Smith et al. 2005b), such that the dominant forces acting on galaxies are likely to vary from cluster to cluster, or over the course of an individual cluster’ assembly history.”
Environment and self-regulation in galaxy formation (2009, background): “…Antonuccio-Delogu & Rifatto 2006; Holden et al. 2007; Park et al. 2007; van der Wel et al. 2007; Bamford et al. 2009) and intermediate redshift Universe (Dressler et al. 1997; Fasano et al. 2000; Treu et al. 2003; Smith et al. 2005; van der Wel et al. 2007; Pannella et al. 2009; Tasca et al. 2009).”
The zCOSMOS redshift survey: the role of environment and stellar mass in shaping the rise of the morphology-density relation from z ~ 1 (2009, methodology): “Smith et al. (2005) visually classified 1257 galaxies in high density clusters and low density fields starting from HST/ACS observations at z ∼ 1.”
The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: the relationship between galaxy properties and environment at z∼ 1 (2006, background): “…probed in such studies has been limited, with galaxies grouped into coarse classifications (such as field, group and cluster populations) and with statistically small spectroscopic sample sizes (e.g. Couch et al. 1998; Treu et al. 2003; Smith et al. 2005; Tanaka et al. 2005; Poggianti et al. 2006).”
Galaxy Zoo: the dependence of morphology and colour on environment (2008, methodology): “The evolution found by previous studies (Smith et al. 2005; Postman et al. 2005) is attributed to effects of their luminosity-based selection.”
EVOLUTION OF GALAXIES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS AT z = 0.1–3 IN COSMOS (2013, background): “Color selection clearly biases any correlation between environment and galaxy SED or morphological type (Dressler et al. 1997; Smith et al. 2005) since the resulting LSS are a priori based on a particular SED type (e.g. early type galaxies).”
Ongoing assembly of massive galaxies by major merging in large groups and clusters from the SDSS (2007, background): “…abundance in high-density structures lik large groups and clusters of galaxies (e.g., Dressler 1980; Postman & Geller 1984; Hashimoto & Oemler 1999; Smith et al. 2005), which naturally grow through the hierarchical merging of dark-matter halosover cosmic time as expected in theΛCDM cosmological…”
ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEUS HOST GALAXY MORPHOLOGIES IN COSMOS (2009, methodology): “…the distribution of absolute magnitudes peaks around MV = −22, so these galaxies have similar luminosities to M∗V −22 (for z = 1, computed by starting from the local value of Brown et al. 2001 and following Capak et al. 2007 and Smith et al. 2005 in allowing 1 mag of passive evolution to z = 1).”
The Evolution of the Star Formation Activity in Galaxies and Its Dependence on Environment (2005, background): “Distant clusters generally contain a higher proportion of spirals, and a correspondingly lower proportion of S0 galaxies, than low-z clusters (Dressler et al. 1997, Couch et al. 1998, Fasano et al. 2000, Treu et al. 2003, Smith et al. 2005, Postman et al. 2005).”