Red Nuggets at z 1.5: Compact Passive Galaxies and The Formation of The Kormendy Relation

Details Red Nuggets at z 1.5: Compact Passive Galaxies and The Formation of The Kormendy Relation Red Nuggets at z 1.5: Compact Passive Galaxies and The Formation of The Kormendy Relation

Jan 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009aas...21336203d&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #213, #362.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 41, p.512

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We present the results of NICMOS imaging of a sample of 16 high mass passively evolving galaxies with 1.3 < z < 2, taken primarily from the Gemini Deep Deep Survey. Our rest-frame R-band images show that most of these objects have compact regular morphologies which follow the classical de Vaucouleurs law. These galaxies scatter along a tight sequence in the size vs. surface brightness parameter space which defines the Kormendy relation. Around one-third of the massive red objects are extraordinarily compact, with effective radii < 1 kpc. While similar systems have been seen at z > 2, this is the first time such systems have been detected in a rest-frame optical survey at 1.3 < z < 2. We refer to these compact galaxies as 'red nuggets', and note that similarly compact massive galaxies are completely absent in the nearby Universe. We introduce a new 'stellar mass Kormendy relation' (stellar mass density vs size) which we use to single out the effects of size evolution from those of luminosity and color evolution in stellar populations. The 1 < z < 2 passive galaxies have mass densities that are an order of magnitude larger then early type galaxies today and are comparable to the compact distant red galaxies at 2 < z < 3. We consider the ability of the mechanisms for size evolution in contemporary models to resolve the origin and fate of these compact 'red nuggets'.

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