Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011aas...21721101d&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #217, #211.01; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 43, 2011
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
The size growth of massive passively evolving galaxies from redshifts beyond z 1 has been the source of much puzzlement and debate in recent years. I will present the results of an HST (ACS F814W + NICMOS F160W) imaging survey of 55 massive passively evolving GDDS galaxies at 0.6 < z < 2, confirming that the large fraction ( 30%) of the massive red objects at z > 1.2 are extraordinarily compact, with effective radii under one kiloparsec. Similar objects seem to be less abundant at z < 1 - less than 10% of these objects are as compact as their higher redshift massive counterparts. Furthermore, compact massive galaxies are completely absent in the local Universe. To better understand the underlying phenomenon behind this change in size, we define a 'stellar mass Kormendy relation' (stellar mass density vs. size) to isolate the effects of size evolution from those of luminosity and color evolution in stellar populations. The 1 < z < 2 passive galaxies in our sample have central mass densities that are several times larger than seen in early-type galaxies today, but quite comparable to the densities seen in compact distant red galaxies at 2 < z < 3. We use the relation between size and mass, observed both locally and at high redshifts, to remove trend with mass, and show that massive elliptical galaxies are continuously growing in size over a wide range of redshifts. I will discuss a possibility that environment may play a crucial role in assembling early-type galaxies, and consider proposed mechanisms for size evolution in contemporary models.
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