Bibcode
Trujillo, I.; Conselice, C. J.
Bibliographical reference
Pathways Through an Eclectic Universe ASP Conference Series, Vol. 390, proceedings of the conference held 23-27 April, 2007 at Santiago del Teide, Tenerife, Spain. Edited by J. H. Knapen, T. J. Mahoney, and A. Vazdekis San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2008., p.416
Advertised on:
6
2008
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
We explore the size evolution of 831 very massive galaxies
(Mstar≥1011 h70-2
Msun) since z˜ 2 using the combined capabilities of the
large near infrared Palomar/DEEP-2 survey, and the superb resolution of
the HST ACS camera. 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 highly (n>2.5) concentrated objects were
much smaller in the past than their local massive counterparts. The
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
magnitude 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.