CANDELS: THE PROGENITORS OF COMPACT QUIESCENT GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2

By G. Barro, S. Faber, P. Pérez-González, D. Koo, C. Williams, D. Kocevski, J. Trump, M. Mozena, E. McGrath, A. van der Wel and 27 more. 2012

302 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We combine high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 images with multi-wavelength photometry to track the evolution of structure and activity of massive (M⋆ > 1010 M☉) galaxies at redshifts z = 1.4–3 in two fields of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. We detect compact, star-forming galaxies (cSFGs) whose number densities, masses, sizes, and star formation rates (SFRs) qualify them as likely progenitors of compact, quiescent, massive galaxies (cQGs) at z = 1.5–3. At z ≳ 2, cSFGs present SFR = 100–200 M☉ yr−1, yet their specific star formation rates (sSFR ∼ 10−9 yr−1) are typically half that of other massive SFGs at the same epoch, and host X-ray luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs) 30 times (∼30%) more frequently. These properties suggest that cSFGs are formed by gas-rich processes (mergers or disk-instabilities) that induce a compact starburst and feed an AGN, which, in turn, quench the star formation on dynamical timescales (few 108 yr). The cSFGs are continuously being formed at z = 2–3 and fade to cQGs down to z ∼ 1.5. After this epoch, cSFGs are rare, thereby truncating the formation of new cQGs. Meanwhile, down to z = 1, existing cQGs continue to enlarge to match local QGs in size, while less-gas-rich mergers and other secular mechanisms shepherd (larger) SFGs as later arrivals to the red sequence. In summary, we propose two evolutionary tracks of QG formation: an early (z ≳ 2), formation path of rapidly quenched cSFGs fading into cQGs that later enlarge within the quiescent phase, and a late-arrival (z ≲ 2) path in which larger SFGs form extended QGs without passing through a compact state.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ea1eff7f2c317307424ae02bae04d7719d4871f7

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Citations in the corpus

Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework (2014, background): “A striking recent observation is that, at fixed stellar mass, spheroid-dominated galaxies at z ∼ 2 have much smaller sizes and central densities higher by orders of magnitude compared to today’s (e.g. Barro et al. 2013, Trujillo et al. 2006, van der Wel et al. 2014, van Dokkum et al. 2014, 2008).”
Bulge mass is king: the dominant role of the bulge in determining the fraction of passive galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (2014, unknown): “2009, Cameron et al. 2009, Cameron & Driver 2009, Peng et al. 2010, Wuyts et al. 2011, Peng et al. 2012, Bell et al. 2012, Cheung et al. 2012, Barro et al. 2013, Fang et al. 2013, Mendel et al. 2013, and Woo et al. 2013, Omand et al. 2014).”
The formation of massive, compact galaxies at z = 2 in the Illustris simulation (2014, background): “Observationally, compact galaxies have a number density 2×10−4 Mpc−3 at z = 2, where “compact" is as defined by Barro et al. (2013) to be galaxies which satisfy log((M/M )/(R/kpc)1.5) > 10.3, where M is stellar mass and R is half-light radius in the HST/WFC3 H-band.”
3D-HST+CANDELS: THE EVOLUTION OF THE GALAXY SIZE–MASS DISTRIBUTION SINCE z = 3 (2014, unknown): “5 (also see Barro et al. 2013; Williams et al. 2014; Barro et al. 2013) may reﬂect the intriguing possibility of a scenario in which such small, yet massive star-forming galaxies are the immediate progenitors of compact early-type galaxies.”
Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3 ≤ z ≤ 4 quiescent galaxies (2018, background): “…the proportion of star-forming objects among massive galaxies, compact galaxies, or within over-dense structures was larger in the past (e.g., Butcher & Oemler 1978; Elbaz et al. 2007; van Dokkum et al. 2010; Brammer et al. 2011; Barro et al. 2013, 2016; Wang et al. 2016; Elbaz et al. 2017).”
Structural and Star-forming Relations since z ∼ 3: Connecting Compact Star-forming and Quiescent Galaxies (2015, background): “…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).”
Constraining the galaxy–halo connection over the last 13.3 Gyr: star formation histories, galaxy mergers and structural properties (2017, background): “Similar conclusions have been found when using other surface mass density definitions (Cheung et al. 2012; Fang et al. 2013; Barro et al. 2013, 2015; Tacchella et al. 2015) or Sérsic index (see e.g. Bell et al. 2012).”
A LINK BETWEEN STAR FORMATION QUENCHING AND INNER STELLAR MASS DENSITY IN SLOAN DIGITAL SKY SURVEY CENTRAL GALAXIES (2013, background): “This is consistent with downsizing and also the fact that more massive spheroidal galaxies are found to possess more evolved stellar populations (e.g., Thomas et al. 2005; Cattaneo et al. 2008; Graves et al. 2010; Barro et al. 2013; Moustakas et al. 2013).”
A unified model for galactic discs: star formation, turbulence driving, and mass transport (2017, background): “At least for haloes at and slightly above the more massive end of the range we consider, which tend to quench at z ∼ 2, both observations (Barro et al. 2013, 2016, 2017; Tacchella et al. 2015, 2018) and simulations (Zolotov et al. 2015; Tacchella et al. 2016a,b) suggest that galaxies pass through a…”
A CANDELS–3D-HST SYNERGY: RESOLVED STAR FORMATION PATTERNS AT 0.7 < z < 1.5 (2013, background): “…mass, and are best characterized by exponential disk profiles, while quiescent galaxies lying below the main sequence have higher Sersic indices, i.e., are more bulge-dominated (Wuyts et al. 2011b; although see Barro et al. 2013 for interesting sub-populations deviating from this overall trend).”
Galaxy morphology and star formation in the Illustris Simulation at z = 0 (2015, background): “Surveys have found that quiescence is strongly correlated with measures of optical structure, such as Sérsic index and compactness, albeit with large scatter (e.g., Wuyts et al. 2011; Bell et al. 2012; Barro et al. 2013).”
Size evolution of normal and compact galaxies in the EAGLE simulation (2015, methodology): “Recently, the theoretical study of Wellons et al. (2015a) considered the evolution of compact galaxies identified in the ILLUSTRIS simulation, using the Barro et al. (2013) criterion for compactness (transformed to a 3D radius), R50/(M∗/1011 M )0.75 < 4.5.”
The confinement of star-forming galaxies into a main sequence through episodes of gas compaction, depletion and replenishment (2015, background): “Furthermore, such compact SFGs (i.e., the blue nuggets) have been observationally detected (Barro et al. 2013, 2014; Nelson et al. 2014; Bruce et al. 2014; Williams et al. 2014, 2015).”
Wet Disc Contraction to Galactic Blue Nuggets and Quenching to Red Nuggets (2013, background): “Evidence for the dominance of a fast quenching mode at high redshifts is provided by the rather rapid appearance of the red sequence during a period shorter than ∼ 0.7Gyr between z ∼ 2.8 and z ∼ 2.2 (Barro et al. 2013a, Figure 2).”
UNLEASHING POSITIVE FEEDBACK: LINKING THE RATES OF STAR FORMATION, SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE ACCRETION, AND OUTFLOWS IN DISTANT GALAXIES (2013, background): “The effective radius of star-forming galaxies observed at high redshift (Mosleh et al. 2012) is comparable to that of classic bulges, as well as to the scales inferred for the predecessors of compact quiescent galaxies at lower redshift (Barro et al. 2013).”