Bibcode
Trujillo, I.; Conselice, C. J.; Bundy, Kevin; Cooper, M. C.; Eisenhardt, P.; Ellis, Richard S.
Bibliographical reference
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 382, Issue 1, pp. 109-120.
Advertised on:
11
2007
Citations
467
Refereed citations
426
Description
Using the combined capabilities of the large near-infrared
Palomar/DEEP-2 survey, and the superb resolution of the Advanced Camera
for Surveys HST camera, we explore the size evolution of 831 very
massive galaxies (M* >=
1011h-270Msolar) since z ~
2. We split our sample according to their light concentration using the
Sérsic index n. At a given stellar mass, both low (n < 2.5)
and high (n > 2.5) concentrated objects were much smaller in the past
than their local massive counterparts. This evolution is particularly
strong for the highly concentrated (spheroid like) objects. At z ~ 1.5,
massive spheroid-like objects were a factor of 4 (+/-0.4) smaller (i.e.
almost two orders of magnitudes denser) than those we see today. These
small sized, high-mass galaxies do not exist in the nearby Universe,
suggesting that this population merged with other galaxies over several
billion years to form the largest galaxies we see today.