GMASS ultradeep spectroscopy of galaxies at $z$ ~ 2 - II. Superdense passive galaxies: how did they form and evolve?

By A. Cimatti, P. Cassata, L. Pozzetti, J. Kurk, M. Mignoli, A. Renzini, E. Daddi, M. Bolzonella, M. Brusa, G. Rodighiero and 6 more. 2008

437 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Aims. The aim of this work is to investigate the physical, structur al and evolutionary properties of old, passive galaxies at z> 1.4 and to place new constraints on massive galaxy formation and evolution. Methods. We combine ultradeep optical spectroscopy from the GMASS project (Galaxy Mass Assembly ultradeep Spectroscopic Survey) with GOODS multi-band (optical to mid‐infrared) photometry and HST imaging to study a sample of spectroscopically identified passive galaxies at 1.39 2. No X-ray emission was found neither from individual galaxies nor from a stacking analysis of the sample. Only one galaxy shows a marginal detection at 24� m. These galaxies have morphologies that are predominantly compact and spheroidal. However, their sizes (Re. 1 kpc) are much smaller than those of spheroids in the present‐day Universe. Their stellar mass surface densities are consequently hig her by≈1 dex if compared to spheroids at z≈ 0 with the same mass. Their rest-frame B-band surface brightness scales with the effective radius, but the offset with respect to the surface brightness of the local Korme ndy relation is too large to be explained by simple passive evolution. At z≈ 1, a larger fraction of passive galaxies follows the z≈ 0 size ‐ mass relation. Superdense relics with Re≈ 1 kpc are extremely rare at z≈ 0 with respect to z> 1, and absent if Re 2. The results are compared with theoretical models and the main implications discussed in the framework of massive galaxy formation and evolution.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/90216cf380cddc7603e4b728c598c7fd6ad47301

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. P. V. van Dokkum
4. R. Somerville
5. R. Dav'e
6. C. Conroy
7. A. Dekel
8. Christopher J. Conselice

In Instrumentation

1. P. Hopkins
2. L. Hernquist
3. P. V. van Dokkum
4. M. Cappellari
5. C. Conroy
6. M. Franx
7. R. Dav'e
8. A. Dekel

Citations in the corpus

• The DEEP3 Galaxy Redshift Survey: the impact of environment on the size evolution of massive early-type galaxies at intermediate redshift (2011, result): “Utilizing the same data set, however, Cimatti et al. (2008) propose (though without quantifying) a possible correlation between size and environment similar in nature to that found within our DEEP2/DEEP3 sample (i.e. higher density regions favouring less-compact galaxies).”
• Curvature in the scaling relations of early-type galaxies (2008, background): “Recent work shows that the correlation between size and luminosity relation has evolved significantly since z = 2 (e.g. Cimatti et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008).”
• 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).”
• Star formation and mass assembly in high-redshift galaxies (2009, methodology): “In addition, we have also had access to the spectra of the GMASS survey (Cimatti et al. 2008), prior to their publication.”
• AN ULTRA-DEEP NEAR-INFRARED SPECTRUM OF A COMPACT QUIESCENT GALAXY AT z = 2.2 (2009, background): “This turned out to be extremely difficult, and with optical spectroscopy tens to hundreds of hours are required (Daddi et al. 2005; Cimatti et al. 2008), due to their relative faintness in the rest-frame UV.”
• THE COSMOLOGICAL SIZE AND VELOCITY DISPERSION EVOLUTION OF MASSIVE EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES (2011, background): “…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; Damjanov et al. 2009, 2011).”
• Stellar population models at high spectral resolution (2011, background): “2011, Aihara et al. 2011; the GAlaxy Mass Assembly - GAMA - Driver et al. 2011; RESOLVE, Kannappan et al. 2011; GMASS, Cimatti et al. 2008; the SINS survey, FörsterSchreiber et al. 2011).”
• The evolution of the dust temperatures of galaxies in the SFR–M∗ plane up to z ~ 2 (2013, methodology): “We use spectroscopic redshifts coming from a combination of various studies (Cohen et al. 2000; Wirth et al. 2004; Cowie et al. 2004; Le Fèvre et al. 2004; Mignoli et al. 2005; Vanzella et al. 2006; Reddy et al. 2006; Barger et al. 2008; Cimatti et al. 2008; Lilly et al. 2009).”
• The SINS/zC-SINF Survey of z ∼ 2 Galaxy Kinematics: SINFONI Adaptive Optics–assisted Data and Kiloparsec-scale Emission-line Properties (2018, background): “5µm,AB < 23.0 mag, Cimatti et al. 2008; Kurk et al. 2013), or a combination of K-band and BzK color criteria (from the survey by Kong et al. 2006 of the “Deep3a” field of the ESO Imaging Survey, Renzini & Da Costa 1997).”
• Structure and Star Formation in Galaxies out to z = 3: Evidence for Surface Density Dependent Evolution and Upsizing (2008, background): “This had been noticed before by many authors (e.g., Trujillo et al. 2003, 2006a,b, Daddi et al. 2005, Toft et al. 2007, Cimatti et al. 2008, van Dokkum et al. 2008).”
• The stellar masses and specific star-formation rates of submillimetre galaxies (2011, methodology): “…masses (van der Wel et al. 2006a,b), on derived photometric redshifts (Maraston et al. 2006), on average broadband SEDs (Maraston et al. 2006; Cimatti et al. 2008), on optical and near-infrared colours (MacArthur et al. 2010), and by comparison with semi-analytical models (Henriques et al.…”
• How do minor mergers promote inside-out growth of ellipticals, transforming the size, density profile and dark matter fraction? (2012, background): “…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; Saracco et al. 2009; Damjanov et al. 2009; Kriek et al. 2009; Bezanson et al. 2009; van Dokkum et al. 2010;…”
• AGN-driven quenching of star formation: morphological and dynamical implications for early-type galaxies (2013, background): “Observations suggest such an evolution with time in the compactness of galaxies (Trujillo et al. 2007; Cimatti et al. 2008; Saracco, Longhetti & Andreon 2009; van Dokkum et al. 2010; Huertas-Company et al. 2013), and the effective radius is of the order of ∼1.5 − 2 smaller at redshift 1 than at…”
• A LARGE POPULATION OF MASSIVE COMPACT POST-STARBURST GALAXIES AT z > 1: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE SIZE EVOLUTION AND QUENCHING MECHANISM OF QUIESCENT GALAXIES (2011, background): “There is overwhelming evidence that the structures of these red sequence galaxies have undergone a rapid evolution since z ∼ 2 (Daddi et al. 2005; Cimatti et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008, etc.), where galaxies of the same stellar mass have significantly smaller sizes in the past.”
• MERGERS IN ΛCDM: UNCERTAINTIES IN THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS AND INTERPRETATIONS OF THE MERGER RATE (2010, background): “Likewise the number density of IR luminous systems apparently in mergers at high redshifts is so high as to yield tension with the relic bulge mass in the Universe (see e.g. Younger et al. 2007; Genel et al. 2008; Tacconi et al. 2008; Hopkins et al. 2006; Cimatti et al. 2008).”
• The ATLAS3D project – XX. Mass–size and mass–σ distributions of early-type galaxies: bulge fraction drives kinematics, mass-to-light ratio, molecular gas fraction and stellar initial mass function (2012, methodology): “However, they have smaller masses at E uropean Southern O bservatory on A ugust 13, 2014 http://m nras.oxfordjournals.org/ D ow nloaded from 1870 M. Cappellari et al. (MJAM ≈ 3 × 1010 M ) than their high-redshift counterparts (Cimatti et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008).”
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: THE EVOLUTION OF THE GALAXY SIZE–MASS DISTRIBUTION SINCE z = 3 (2014, positive): “…mass content of the compact early-type galaxies were alleviated by dynamical mass estimates of such galaxies at z 1 (van der Wel et al. 2008; Cimatti et al. 2008; Newman et al. 2010; van de Sande et al. 2011; Toft et al. 2012; van de Sande et al. 2013; Bezanson et al. 2013; Belli et al.…”
• CONSTRAINTS ON THE ASSEMBLY AND DYNAMICS OF GALAXIES. I. DETAILED REST-FRAME OPTICAL MORPHOLOGIES ON KILOPARSEC SCALE OF z ∼ 2 STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2010, background): “…the formation and evolution of such compact, quiescent galaxies at highz is the basis of much ongoing observational and theoretical work (e.g., Trujillo et al. 2007; Cimatti et al. 2008; van der Wel et al. 2008; Damjanov et al. 2009; Hopkins et al. 2009; Mancini et al. 2010; Wuyts et al. 2010).”
• THE GROWTH OF MASSIVE GALAXIES SINCE z = 2 (2009, background): “…massive early-type galaxies (e.g., Thomas et al. 2005; van Dokkum & van der Marel 2007) and the existence of apparently “red and dead” galaxies with small sizes at z = 1.5− 2.5 (e.g., Cimatti et al. 2008; van Dokkum et al. 2008) suggest that at least some of the growth is due to (“dry”) mergers.”