Evidence for Morphology and Luminosity Transformation of Galaxies at High Redshifts

Abstract

We study the galaxy morphology-luminosity-environmental relation and its redshift evolution using a spectroscopic sample of galaxies in the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS). In the redshift range of $0.4\le z\le 1.0$ we detect conformity in morphology between neighboring galaxies. The realm of conformity is confined within the virialized region associated with each galaxy plus dark matter halo system. When a galaxy is located within the virial radius of its nearest neighbor galaxy, its morphology strongly depends on the neighbor's distance and morphology: the probability for a galaxy to be an early type ($f_E$) strongly increases as it approaches an early-type neighbor, but tends to decrease as it approaches a late-type neighbor. We find that $f_E$ evolves much faster in high density regions than in low density regions, and that the morphology-density relation becomes significantly weaker at $z\approx 1$. This may be because the rate of galaxy-galaxy interactions is higher in high density regions, and a series of interactions and mergers over the course of galaxy life eventually transform late types into early types. We find more isolated galaxies are more luminous, which supports luminosity transformation through mergers at these redshifts. Our results are consistent with those from nearby galaxies, and demonstrate that galaxy-galaxy interactions have been strongly affecting the galaxy evolution over a long period of time.

arXiv comment9 pages, 9 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (51)

• Maps of Dust IR Emission for Use in Estimation of Reddening and CMBR Foregrounds
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey: Spectra and redshifts
• The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) -- Overview
• The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey: Initial Results From Optical and Near-Infrared Imaging
• K-corrections and filter transformations in the ultraviolet, optical, and near infrared
• The reversal of the star formation-density relation in the distant universe
• Galaxy Luminosity Functions to z~1: DEEP2 vs. COMBO-17 and Implications for Red Galaxy Formation
• Evolution since z = 0.5 of the Morphology-Density relation for Clusters of Galaxies
• Properties of Galaxy Groups in the SDSS: I.-- The Dependence of Colour, Star Formation, and Morphology on Halo Mass
• The bimodal galaxy color distribution: dependence on luminosity and environment
• Relationship between environment and the broad-band optical properties of galaxies in the SDSS
• The All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS) Data Sets
• The Chandra Deep Field South: Optical Spectroscopy I
• Galaxy ecology: groups and low-density environments in the SDSS and 2dFGRS
• The Morphology-Density Relation in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Evolution of Galaxy Mergers and Morphology at z<1.2 in the Extended Groth Strip
• The Morphology - Density Relation in z ~ 1 Clusters
• A wide field Hubble Space Telescope study of the cluster CL0024+16 at z=0.4. I: morphological distributions to 5 Mpc radius
• The Mass Assembly Histories of Galaxies of Various Morphologies in the GOODS Fields
• Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey X: A Redshift Survey in the Region of the Hubble Deep Field North
• The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey. VLT/FORS2 Spectroscopy in the GOODS-South Field: Part III
• The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey: Public release of 1599 redshifts to IAB<=24 across the Chandra Deep Field South
• Environmental Dependence of Properties of Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Team Keck Treasury Redshift Survey of the GOODS-North Field
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: The Role of Galaxy Environment in the Cosmic Star-Formation History
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: The Relationship Between Galaxy Properties and Environment at z ~ 1
• The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey. VLT/VIMOS Spectroscopy in the GOODS-South Field
• A Spectroscopic Survey of Redshift 1.4<z<3.0 Galaxies in the Goods-North Field: Survey Description, Catalogs, and Properties
• Internal and Collective Properties of Galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Luminosity, Stellar Mass, and Number Density Evolution of Field Galaxies of Known Morphology from z = 0.5 - 3
• The Structures of Distant Galaxies I: Galaxy Structures and the Merger Rate to z~3 in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field
• Evolution Since z=1 of the Morphology-density Relation of Galaxies
• The K20 survey. VII. The spectroscopic catalogue: spectral properties and evolution of the galaxy population
• The Environmental Dependence of Galaxy Properties in the Local Universe: Dependence on Luminosity, Local Density, and System Richness
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Evolution of the Color-Density Relation at 0.4 < z < 1.35
• The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey - VLT/FORS2 Spectroscopy in the GOODS-South Field
• The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey VLT/FORS2 Spectroscopy in the GOODS-South Field: Part II
• A large sample of spectroscopic redshifts in the ACS-GOODS region of the HDF-N
• The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey: The build-up of the colour-density relation
• The relation between star formation, morphology and local density in high redshift clusters and groups
• 531 new spectroscopic redshifts from the CDFS and a test on the cosmological relevance of the GOODS-South field
• The effects of environment on morphological evolution between 0<z<1.2 in the COSMOS Survey
• The Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS): The morphological content and enviromental dependence of the galaxy color-magnitude relation at z~0.7
• Combined Effects of Galaxy Interactions and Large-Scale Environment on Galaxy Properties
• The Evolution of the Field and Cluster Morphology-Density Relation for Mass-Selected Samples of Galaxies
• Transformation of Morphology and Luminosity Classes of the SDSS Galaxies
• Internal Color Properties of Resolved Spheroids in the Deep HST/ACS field of UGC 10214
• The Nature of Blue Early-Type Galaxies in the Goods Fields
• The CFHT Legacy Survey: The Morphology-Density Relation of Galaxies out to Z~1
• Evidence for the Evolution of Young Early-Type Galaxies in the GOODS/CDF-S Field

Cited by in corpus (24)

• A mature cluster with X-ray emission at z=2.07
• The Effective Number Density of Galaxies for Weak Lensing Measurements in the LSST Project
• Environmental Dependence of Local Luminous Infrared Galaxies
• The evolution of the star formation activity per halo mass up to redshift ~ 1.6 as seen by Herschel
• Lenticular Galaxies and Their Environments
• GOODS-Herschel: the impact of galaxy-galaxy interactions on the far-infrared properties of galaxies
• Activity in galactic nuclei of cluster and field galaxies in the local universe
• Effects of the initial conditions on cosmological $N$-body simulations
• Distribution of satellite galaxies in high redshift groups
• Formation and Morphology of the First Galaxies in the Cosmic Morning
• Evolution of star formation rate-density relation over cosmic time in a simulated universe: the observed reversal reproduced
• AKARI Observation of the North Ecliptic Pole (NEP) Supercluster at z = 0.087: mid-infrared view of transition galaxies
• A Study of Environmental Effects on Galaxy Spin Using MaNGA Data
• Low-Surface-Brightness Galaxies are missing in the observed Stellar Mass Function
• Effects of hot halo gas on the star formation and mass transfer during distant galaxy-galaxy encounters
• Gravitational Potential Environment of Galaxies: I. Simulation
• The ecology of dark matter haloes I: The rates and types of halo interactions
• The Properties of Type Ia Supernova Host Galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Origin of Star Formation in Early-type Galaxies Inferred from Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy
• On the Effects of Local Environment on Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) in the Horizon Run 5 Simulation
• Tracing Recent Star Formation of Red Early-type Galaxies out to $z$ $\sim$ 1
• Quantifying galactic morphological transformations in the cluster environment
• The spin of late-type galaxies at redshifts z < 1.2
• Emergence of the Galaxy Morphology-Star Formation Activity-Clustercentric Radius Relations in Galaxy Clusters