HST/WFC3 CONFIRMATION OF THE INSIDE-OUT GROWTH OF MASSIVE GALAXIES AT 0 < z < 2 AND IDENTIFICATION OF THEIR STAR-FORMING PROGENITORS AT z ∼ 3

By Shannon G. Patel, P. V. van Dokkum, M. Franx, R. Quadri, A. Muzzin, D. Marchesini, Rik J. Williams, B. Holden, M. Stefanon. 2012

172 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We study the structural evolution of massive galaxies by linking progenitors and descendants at a constant cumulative number density of nc = 1.4 × 10−4 Mpc−3 to z ∼ 3. Structural parameters were measured by fitting Sérsic profiles to high-resolution CANDELS HST WFC3 J125 and H160 imaging in the UKIDSS-UDS at 1 < z < 3 and ACS I814 imaging in COSMOS at 0.25 < z < 1. At a given redshift, we selected the HST band that most closely samples a common rest-frame wavelength so as to minimize systematics from color gradients in galaxies. At fixed nc, galaxies grow in stellar mass by a factor of ∼3 from z ∼ 3 to z ∼ 0. The size evolution is complex: galaxies appear roughly constant in size from z ∼ 3 to z ∼ 2 and then grow rapidly to lower redshifts. The evolution in the surface mass density profiles indicates that most of the mass at r < 2 kpc was in place by z ∼ 2, and that most of the new mass growth occurred at larger radii. This inside-out mass growth is therefore responsible for the larger sizes and higher Sérsic indices of the descendants toward low redshift. At z < 2, the effective radius evolves with the stellar mass as re∝M2.0, consistent with scenarios that find dissipationless minor mergers to be a key driver of size evolution. The progenitors at z ∼ 3 were likely star-forming disks with re ∼ 2 kpc, based on their low Sérsic index of n ∼ 1, low median axis ratio of b/a ∼ 0.52, and typical location in the star-forming region of the U − V versus V − J diagram. By z ∼ 1.5, many of these star-forming disks disappeared, giving rise to compact quiescent galaxies. Toward lower redshifts, these galaxies continued to assemble mass at larger radii and became the local ellipticals that dominate the high-mass end of the mass function at the present epoch.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/94bcebd423fc70364c92957ce7377879a53fd737

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

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

In Instrumentation

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

Citations in the corpus

• Constraining the galaxy–halo connection over the last 13.3 Gyr: star formation histories, galaxy mergers and structural properties (2017, methodology): “…studies that the evolution of the structural properties of the galaxies played a key role in the quenching of galaxies (Kauffmann et al. 2003a; van Dokkum et al. 2010; Bell et al. 2012; Cheung et al. 2012; Patel et al. 2013; van Dokkum et al. 2014; Barro et al. 2013, 2015; van Dokkum et al. 2015b).”
• MORPHOLOGIES OF ∼190,000 GALAXIES AT z = 0–10 REVEALED WITH HST LEGACY DATA. I. SIZE EVOLUTION (2015, background): “The smaller size in redder bands would be interpreted as heavier dust attenuation in the galactic central regions in bluer bands (e.g., Kelvin et al. 2012) and/or the inside-out disk formation (e.g., Brooks et al. 2009; Bezanson et al. 2009; Naab et al. 2009; Nelson et al. 2012; Patel et al. 2013).”
• Deriving Physical Properties from Broadband Photometry with Prospector: Description of the Model and a Demonstration of its Accuracy Using 129 Galaxies in the Local Universe (2016, background): “Massive galaxies are thought to double in stellar mass from z=2 to the present epoch (e.g., van Dokkum et al. 2010; Patel et al. 2013b).”
• Evolution of density profiles in high-z galaxies: compaction and quenching inside-out (2015, methodology): “Several studies have investigated the stellar mass density distribution within galaxies at high redshifts (e.g., Elmegreen et al. 2009; Förster Schreiber et al. 2011; Wuyts et al. 2012; van Dokkum et al. 2013; Patel et al. 2013; Lang et al. 2014; Morishita et al. 2015).”
• 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).”
• THE RELATION BETWEEN STAR FORMATION RATE AND STELLAR MASS FOR GALAXIES AT 3.5 ⩽ z ⩽ 6.5 IN CANDELS (2014, background): “Many studies have shown that a constant (comoving) number-density selection can trace the progenitor and descendant evolution both to relatively low and high redshifts (e.g., van Dokkum et al. 2010; Papovich et al. 2011; Lundgren et al. 2013; Leja et al. 2013b; Patel et al. 2013; Tal et al. 2014).”
• Structural and Star-forming Relations since z ∼ 3: Connecting Compact Star-forming and Quiescent Galaxies (2015, methodology): “…SFGs with the highest central densities are remarkably compact and have high Sérsic indices and spheroidal morphologies, lacking any signature of an underlying disk (Wuyts et al. 2011b; Barro et al. 2013, 2014a,b; Patel et al. 2013; Stefanon et al. 2013; Williams et al. 2013; Nelson et al. 2014).”
• Size evolution of normal and compact galaxies in the EAGLE simulation (2015, methodology): “The evolution of the sizes of galaxies from the present day up to redshift 3 has been mapped for a broad range of galaxy masses and types using the Hubble Space Telescope with CANDELS imaging (Bezanson et al. 2009; Patel et al. 2013; van Dokkum et al. 2014; van der Wel et al. 2014, hereafter VDW14).”
• Theoretical Challenges in Galaxy Formation (2016, background): “Most of the mass is assembling at larger radii by in-situ star formation providing direct evidence for ’inside-out’ growth accompanied by mass growth in the central regions which can be dominated by bars and bulges (Patel et al. 2013a).”
• THE ASSEMBLY OF MILKY-WAY-LIKE GALAXIES SINCE z ∼ 2.5 (2013, methodology): “The red curves show the change in these same parameters for high mass galaxies, calculated in the same way (Patel et al. 2013).”
• FORMING COMPACT MASSIVE GALAXIES (2015, background): “The solid blue and red curves show the evolution fromz∼ 3 to z = 1.5 of number density-matched samples of low mass (van Dokkum et al. 2013) and high mass (Patel et al. 2013) galaxies.”