Superdense massive galaxies in the Nearby Universe

Abstract

Superdense massive galaxies (r_e~1 kpc; M~10^{11} Msun) were common in the early universe (z>1.5). Within some hierarchical merging scenarios, a non-negligible fraction (1-10%) of these galaxies is expected to survive since that epoch retaining their compactness and presenting old stellar populations in the present universe. Using the NYU Value-Added Galaxy Catalog from the SDSS Data Release 6 we find only a tiny fraction of galaxies (~0.03%) with r_e<1.5 kpc and M_*>8x10^{10} Msun in the local Universe (z<0.2). Surprinsingly, they are relatively young (~2 Gyr) and metal-rich ([Z/H]~0.2). The consequences of these findings within the current two competing size evolution scenarios for the most massive galaxies ("dry" mergers vs "puffing up" due to quasar activity) are discussed.

Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 3 figures

References in corpus (28)

• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• The Host Galaxies of AGN
• Detailed Structural Decomposition of Galaxy Images
• Parametric Recovery of Line-of-Sight Velocity Distributions from Absorption-Line Spectra of Galaxies via Penalized Likelihood
• K-corrections and filter transformations in the ultraviolet, optical, and near infrared
• MILES: A Medium resolution INT Library of Empirical Spectra
• NYU-VAGC: a galaxy catalog based on new public surveys
• The size distribution of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Passively Evolving Early-type Galaxies at 1.4<z<2.5 in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• Confirmation of the remarkable compactness of massive quiescent galaxies at z~2.3: early-type galaxies did not form in a simple monolithic collapse
• Relationship between environment and the broad-band optical properties of galaxies in the SDSS
• Strong size evolution of the most massive galaxies since z~2
• Size evolution of the most massive galaxies at 1.7<z<3 from GOODS NICMOS survey imaging
• Formation of early-type galaxies from cosmological initial conditions
• GMASS Ultradeep Spectroscopy of Galaxies at 1.4<z<2. II. Superdense passive galaxies: how did they form and evolve ?
• Medium-resolution Isaac Newton Telescope library of empirical spectra - II. The stellar atmospheric parameters
• Recent Structural Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies: Size Growth from z=1 to z=0
• A simple model for the size-evolution of elliptical galaxies
• HST and Spitzer imaging of red and blue galaxies at z~2.5: A correlation between size and star formation activity from compact quiescent galaxies to extended star forming galaxies
• Extremely compact massive galaxies at z~1.4
• The dramatic size evolution of elliptical galaxies and the quasar feedback
• NICMOS Imaging of DRGs in the HDF-S: A Relation Between Star-Formation and Size at z ~ 2.5
• On the estimation of galaxy structural parameters: the Sersic Model
• The Kormendy relation of massive elliptical galaxies at z~1.5. Evidence for size evolution ?
• An optimized H_βindex for disentangling stellar population ages
• Stellar populations of early-type galaxies in different environments III. Line-strength gradients
• Exploring the evolutionary paths of the most massive galaxies since z~2
• A search for the most massive galaxies: Double Trouble?

Cited by in corpus (145)

• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• The Atlas3D project -- I. A volume-limited sample of 260 nearby early-type galaxies: science goals and selection criteria
• The Growth of Massive Galaxies Since z=2
• The Sloan Lens ACS Survey. X. Stellar, Dynamical, and Total Mass Correlations of Massive Early-type Galaxies
• The Relation Between Compact, Quiescent High Redshift Galaxies and Massive Nearby Elliptical Galaxies: Evidence for Hierarchical, Inside-Out Growth
• Can Minor Merging Account for the Size Growth of Quiescent Galaxies? New Results from the CANDELS Survey
• The cosmological size and velocity dispersion evolution of massive early-type galaxies
• How do minor mergers promote inside-out growth of ellipticals, transforming the size, density profile and dark matter fraction?
• The evolving relations between size, mass, surface density, and star formation in 3x10^4 galaxies since z=2
• Compact High-Redshift Galaxies Are the Cores of the Most Massive Present-Day Spheroids
• Stellar Kinematics of z~2 Galaxies and the Inside-Out Growth of Quiescent Galaxies
• Discriminating Between the Physical Processes that Drive Spheroid Size Evolution
• Sizes and surface brightness profiles of quiescent galaxies at z ~ 2
• Dissecting the size evolution of elliptical galaxies since z~1: puffing up vs minor merging scenarios
• Superdense galaxies and the mass-size relation at low redshift
• Superdense Massive Galaxies in Wings Local Clusters
• The Morphologies of Massive Galaxies at 1<z<3 in the CANDELS-UDS Field: Compact Bulges, and the Rise and Fall of Massive Disks
• Dynamical masses of early-type galaxies at z~2: Are they truly superdense?
• On the Size and Comoving Mass Density Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies
• Relaxation and Stripping: The Evolution of Sizes, Dispersions and Dark Matter Fractions in Major and Minor Mergers of Elliptical Galaxies
• Size Evolution of Spheroids in a Hierarchical Universe
• On the Dearth of Compact, Massive, Red Sequence Galaxies in the Local Universe
• The dominant role of mergers in the size evolution of massive early-type galaxies since z ~ 1
• Cosmic Evolution of Size and Velocity Dispersion for Early Type Galaxies
• The evolution of the mass-size relation for early type galaxies from z~1 to the present: dependence on environment, mass-range and detailed morphology
• The relative abundance of compact and normal massive early-type galaxies and its evolution from redshift z~2 to the present
• Dense cores in galaxies out to z=2.5 in SDSS, UltraVISTA, and the five 3D-HST/CANDELS fields
• NGC1277: a massive compact relic galaxy in the nearby Universe
• Velocity Dispersions and Dynamical Masses for a Large Sample of Quiescent Galaxies at z > 1: Improved Measures of the Growth in Mass and Size
• Deep Absorption Line Studies of Quiescent Galaxies at z~2: The Dynamical Mass-Size Relation, and First Constraints on the Fundamental plane
• MegaMorph -- multi-wavelength measurement of galaxy structure: Sérsic profile fits to galaxies near and far
• High-redshift elliptical galaxies: are they (all) really compact?
• Mild Velocity Dispersion Evolution of Spheroid-like Massive Galaxies since z~2
• The Stellar Halos of Massive Elliptical Galaxies II: Detailed Abundance Ratios at Large Radius
• Evolution in the structural properties of early-type Brightest Cluster Galaxies at small lookback time and dependence on the environment
• The environmental dependence of the stellar mass-size relation in STAGES galaxies
• The Morphology of Passively Evolving Galaxies at z ~ 2 from HST/WFC3 Deep Imaging in the Hubble Ultradeep Field
• The evolution of the number density of compact galaxies
• Massive relic galaxies challenge the co-evolution of SMBHs and their host galaxies
• Hiding in plain sight: An abundance of compact massive spheroids in the local Universe
• Superdense massive galaxies in the ESO Distant Cluster Survey (EDisCS)
• Spatially Resolved Stellar Kinematics from LEGA-C: Increased Rotational Support in z~0.8 Quiescent Galaxies
• The initial mass function of a massive relic galaxy
• A 5x10^9 Solar Mass Black Hole in NGC 1277 from Adaptive Optics Spectroscopy
• A single population of red globular clusters around the massive compact galaxy NGC 1277
• The structural and dynamical properties of compact elliptical galaxies
• No evidence for a dependence of the mass size relation of early-type galaxies on environment in the local Universe
• The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey: the contribution of minor mergers to the growth of L_B >= L*_B galaxies since z ~ 1 from spectroscopically identified pairs
• The effect of the environment on the stellar mass - size relation of present-day galaxies
• The fate of high-redshift massive compact galaxies
• The Origin of Color Gradients in Early-Type Systems and Their Compactness at High-z
• Can AGN feedback-driven star formation explain the size evolution of massive galaxies?
• The Decomposed Bulge and Disk Size-Mass Relations of Massive Galaxies at 1<z<3 in CANDELS
• Accurate Identification of Galaxy Mergers with Imaging
• What Are the Progenitors of Compact, Massive, Quiescent Galaxies at z=2.3? The Population of Massive Galaxies at z>3 from NMBS and CANDELS
• The Number Density of Quiescent Compact Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift
• The massive relic galaxy NGC 1277 is dark matter deficient. From dynamical models of integral-field stellar kinematics out to five effective radii
• Sizes, Colour gradients and Resolved Stellar Mass Distributions for the Massive Cluster Galaxies in XMMUJ2235-2557 at z = 1.39
• A spectroscopic sample of massive, evolved z~2 galaxies: Implications for the evolution of the mass-size relation
• Low Gas Fractions Connect Compact Star-Forming Galaxies to their z ~ 2 Quiescent Descendants
• Early-type galaxies at z~1.3. IV. Scaling relations in different environments
• Gemini K-band NIRI Adaptive Optics Observations of Massive Galaxies at 1 < z < 2
• Expected number of massive galaxy relics in the present-day Universe
• Constraining the star formation and the assembly histories of normal and compact early-type galaxies at 1<z<2
• Sizes and ages of SDSS ellipticals: Comparison with hierarchical galaxy formation models
• Young ages and other intriguing properties of massive compact galaxies in the Local Universe
• Towards a census of super-compact massive galaxies in the Kilo Degree Survey
• The Size Evolution of Passive Galaxies: Observations from the Wide Field Camera 3 Early Release Science Program
• X-shooter Spectroscopy and HST Imaging of 15 Ultra Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 2$
• A universal stellar-mass and size relation of galaxies in GOODS-N region
• The Effect of Many Minor Mergers on the Size Growth of Compact Quiescent Galaxies
• Dozens of compact and high velocity-dispersion early-type galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The impact of a non-universal Initial Mass Function on the Star Formation Histories of Early-Type Galaxies
• A duality in the origin of bulges and spheroidal galaxies
• INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics -- I. Survey presentation and pilot program
• A Compact Early-type Galaxy at z = 0.6 Under a Magnifying Lens: Evidence For Inside-out Growth
• The first sample of spectroscopically confirmed ultra-compact massive galaxies in the Kilo Degree Survey
• Quiescent Galaxy Size and Spectroscopic Evolution: Combining HSC Imaging and Hectospec Spectroscopy
• A Black Hole Mass Determination for the Compact Galaxy Mrk 1216
• On the Shapes and Structures of High-Redshift Compact Galaxies
• Ultra deep sub-kpc view of nearby massive compact galaxies
• The Environment of Massive Quiescent Compact Galaxies at $0.1<z<0.4$ in the COSMOS Field
• Further constraining galaxy evolution models through the Size Function of SDSS Early-type galaxies
• A cosmological context for compact massive galaxies
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Accurate number densities & environments of massive ultracompact galaxies at 0.02 < z < 0.3
• The abundance of compact quiescent galaxies since z ~ 0.6
• Stellar populations of galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey up to $z\sim 1$. IV. Properties of quiescent galaxies on the stellar mass$-$size plane
• How Robust Are the Size Measurements of High-redshift Compact Galaxies?
• Observations contradict galaxy size and surface brightness predictions that are based on the expanding universe hypothesis
• Building the largest spectroscopic sample of ultra-compact massive galaxies with the Kilo Degree Survey
• The interstellar medium and feedback in the progenitors of the compact passive galaxies at z~2
• Testing the presence of multiple photometric components in nearby early-type galaxies using SDSS
• Measuring star formation in high-z massive galaxies: A mid-infrared to submillimeter study of the GOODS NICMOS Survey sample
• Colour gradients in normal and compact early-type galaxies at 1<z<2
• Angular size test on the expansion of the Universe
• Evidence for (and Against) Progenitor Bias in the Size Growth of Compact Red Galaxies
• INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics II. First Data Release (DR1)
• Stellar population properties of individual massive early-type galaxies at 1.4 < z < 2
• Ultramassive dense early-type galaxies: velocity dispersions and number density evolution since z=1.6
• Star formation quenching imprinted on the internal structure of naked red nuggets
• The stellar mass - size relation for cluster galaxies at z=1 with high angular resolution from the Gemini/GeMS multi-conjugate adaptive optics system
• Massive relic galaxies prefer dense environments
• The inner structure of very massive elliptical galaxies: implications for the inside-out formation mechanism of z~2 galaxies
• Low-mass compact elliptical galaxies: spatially-resolved stellar populations and kinematics with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager
• INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics III. Second data release (DR2): testing the systematics on the stellar velocity dispersion
• Two Moderate-Redshift Analogs to Compact Massive Early-Type Galaxies at High Redshifts
• The first catalogue of spectroscopically confirmed red nuggets at z~0.7 from the VIPERS survey. Linking high-z red nuggets and local relics
• The Stellar Mass Fundamental Plane and Compact Quiescent Galaxies at z < 0.6
• Compact E+A Galaxies as a Progenitor of Massive Compact Quiescent Galaxies at 0.2<z< 0.8
• Disc cloaking: Establishing a lower limit to the number density of local compact massive spheroids/bulges and the potential fate of some high-z red nuggets
• Relic galaxy analogues in Illustris TNG50: the formation pathways of surviving red nuggets in a cosmological simulation
• The discrepancy between dynamical and stellar masses in massive compact galaxies traces non-homology
• The abundance of satellites depends strongly on the morphology of the host galaxy
• Discovery of Nine Intermediate Redshift Compact Quiescent Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics IV. The Initial Mass Function slope in relics
• A Search for Moderate-Redshift Survivors from the Population of Luminous Compact Passive Galaxies at High Redshift
• VLT/X-Shooter Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and HST Imaging of Gravitationally-Lensed z~2 Compact Quiescent Galaxies
• The role of quenching time in the evolution of the mass-size relation of passive galaxies from the WISP survey
• Imaging of Three Possible Low Redshift Analogs to High Redshift Compact Red Galaxies
• Compact galaxies and the size-mass galaxy distribution from a colour-selected sample at 0.04 < z < 0.15 supplemented by ugrizYJHK photometric redshifts
• Compact Quiescent Galaxies at Intermediate Redshifts
• On the limits of measuring the bulge and disk properties of local and high-redshift massive galaxies
• Globular Cluster Systems of Relic Galaxies
• Modelling the formation of today's massive ellipticals
• Nature versus nurture: relic nature and environment of the most massive passive galaxies at $z<0.5$
• Detection of Prominent Stellar Disks in the Progenitors of Present-day Massive Elliptical Galaxies
• GECO: Galaxy Evolution COde - A new semi-analytical model of galaxy formation
• The supermassive black hole merger driven evolution of high-redshift red nuggets into present-day cored early-type galaxies
• Dynamical masses and non-homology of massive elliptical galaxies grown by dry mergers
• The merger history of massive spheroids since z~1 is size independent
• Large Size Scatter of Passively Evolving Lensed Galaxies at z~2 in CLASH
• The changing ISM of massive elliptical galaxies and cosmic evolution of radio galaxies and quasars
• The formation of compact massive relic galaxies in MOND
• The abundance of massive compact galaxies at $1.0<z<3.0$ in 3D-HST/CANDELS
• Dark Matter Redistribution Explains Galaxy Growth and Rotation Curve Development
• Structure and Kinematics of Star-forming Elliptical Galaxies in SDSS-MaNGA
• Distinguishing the formation paths of massive compact ETGs through their internal dynamical structures
• SDSS J122958.84+000138.0: A Compact, Optically red galaxy
• Puzzling radial gradients of K-band absorption features in the giant elliptical galaxy M87
• INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Populations In RElics. IX. KiDS J0842+0059: the first fully confirmed relic beyond the local Universe
• The size and mass evolution of the massive galaxies over cosmic time
• Galaxy evolution within the Kilo-Degree Survey
• A MaNGA about the Legacy I: Connecting the Assembly of Stellar Halo with the Average Star Formation History in Low-Redshift Massive Galaxies
• Introducing the FLAMINGOS-2 Split-K Medium Band Filters: The Impact on Photometric Selection of High-z Galaxies in the FENIKS-pilot survey
• Velocity Dispersions and Stellar Populations of the Most Compact and Massive Early-Type Galaxies at Redshift ~1