Getting Steeper: Mass-Density Profile Evolution in the SLACS+BELLS Strong Gravitational Lens Sample

Details Getting Steeper: Mass-Density Profile Evolution in the SLACS+BELLS Strong Gravitational Lens Sample Getting Steeper: Mass-Density Profile Evolution in the SLACS+BELLS Strong Gravitational Lens Sample

2012-01-14

arxiv.org/abs/1201.2988v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics

5 pages, submitted to the ApJ Letters

Scientific paper

We present an analysis of the evolution of the central mass-density profile of massive elliptical galaxies from the SLACS and BELLS strong gravitational lens samples over the redshift interval z ~ 0.1--0.6. We find a significant trend towards steeper mass profiles (parameterized by the power-law density model with rho propto r^[-gamma]) at later cosmic times, with magnitude d/dz = -0.56 +/- 0.14. We show that this detection cannot be explained by variations in the lensing measurement aperture with redshift. This result suggests that major dry mergers involving off-axis trajectories play a significant role in the secular evolution of the average mass-density structure of massive galaxies over the past 6 Gyr.

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