Keck Spectroscopy of z>1 Field Spheroidals: Dynamical Constraints on the Growth Rate of Red "Nuggets"

Abstract

We present deep Keck spectroscopy for 17 morphologically-selected field spheroidals in the redshift range 1.05<z<1.60 in order to investigate the continuity in physical properties between the claimed massive compact red galaxies ("nuggets") at z~2 and well-established data for massive spheroidal galaxies below z~1. By combining Keck-based stellar velocity dispersions with HST-based sizes, we find that the most massive systems (Mdyn > 10^11 Msol) grew in size over 0<z<1.6 as (1+z)^(-0.75 +- 0.10) (i.e., x2 since z=1.5) whereas intermediate mass systems (10^11 Msol > Mdyn > 10^10 Msol) did not grow significantly. These trends are consistent with a picture in which more massive spheroidals formed at higher redshift via "wetter" mergers involving greater dissipation. To examine growth under the favored "dry" merger hypothesis, we also examine size growth at a fixed velocity dispersion. This test, uniquely possible with our dynamical data, allows us to consider the effects of "progenitor bias." Above our completeness limit (sigma > 200 km/s), we find size growth consistent with that inferred for the mass-selected sample, thus ruling out strong progenitor bias. To maintain continuity in the growth of massive galaxies over the past 10 Gyr, our new results imply that size evolution over 1.3<z<2.3, a period of 1.9 Gyr, must have been even more dramatic than hitherto claimed if the red sources at z>2 are truly massive and compact.

Accepted to ApJ Letters. This version includes new data extending to higher redshift and other improvements. 5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (13)

• Mergers and Bulge Formation in Lambda-CDM: Which Mergers Matter?
• Size evolution of the most massive galaxies at 1.7<z<3 from GOODS NICMOS survey imaging
• The initial mass function of early-type galaxies
• The Sloan Lens ACS Survey. IX. Colors, Lensing and Stellar Masses of Early-type Galaxies
• Discriminating Between the Physical Processes that Drive Spheroid Size Evolution
• A high stellar velocity dispersion for a compact massive galaxy at z=2.2
• Dynamical masses of early-type galaxies at z~2: Are they truly superdense?
• A Near-Infrared Spectroscopic Survey of K-selected Galaxies at z ~ 2.3: Comparison of Stellar Population Synthesis Codes and Constraints from the Rest-frame NIR
• High-redshift elliptical galaxies: are they (all) really compact?
• Can dry merging explain the size evolution of early-type galaxies?
• Dissecting the Red Sequence - III. Mass-to-Light Variations in 3D Fundamental Plane Space
• The Morphology of Passively Evolving Galaxies at z ~ 2 from HST/WFC3 Deep Imaging in the Hubble Ultradeep Field
• A z=1.82 Analog of Local Ultra-massive Elliptical Galaxies

Cited by in corpus (101)

• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• Compaction and Quenching of High-z Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations: Blue and Red Nuggets
• Wet Disc Contraction to Galactic Blue Nuggets and Quenching to Red Nuggets
• 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
• Stellar Kinematics of z~2 Galaxies and the Inside-Out Growth of Quiescent Galaxies
• MOSFIRE Spectroscopy of Quiescent Galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5. II - Star Formation Histories and Galaxy Quenching
• The sizes, masses and specific star-formation rates of massive galaxies at 1.3<z<1.5: strong evidence in favour of evolution via minor mergers
• Sizes and surface brightness profiles of quiescent galaxies at z ~ 2
• The structures and total (minor + major) merger histories of massive galaxies up to z = 3 in the HST GOODS NICMOS Survey: A possible solution to the size evolution problem
• Families of dynamically hot stellar systems over ten orders of magnitude in mass
• Evidence for dark matter contraction and a Salpeter IMF in a massive early-type galaxy
• Red Nuggets at High Redshift: Structural Evolution of Quiescent Galaxies Over 10 Gyr of Cosmic History
• Relaxation and Stripping: The Evolution of Sizes, Dispersions and Dark Matter Fractions in Major and Minor Mergers of Elliptical Galaxies
• Deep near-infrared spectroscopy of passively evolving galaxies at z>1.4
• Stellar populations from spectroscopy of a large sample of quiescent galaxies at z > 1: Measuring the contribution of progenitor bias to early size growth
• The dominant role of mergers in the size evolution of massive early-type galaxies since z ~ 1
• The Dawes Review 1: Kinematic studies of star-forming galaxies across cosmic time
• SHARDS: an optical spectro-photometric survey of distant galaxies
• 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
• The Relationship between Galaxy and Dark Matter Halo Size from z~3 to the present
• The impact of stellar feedback on the structure, size and morphology of galaxies in Milky Way size dark matter haloes
• The SL2S Galaxy-scale Lens Sample. II. Cosmic evolution of dark and luminous mass in early-type galaxies
• The Argo Simulation: I. Quenching of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift as a Result of Cosmological Starvation
• The Dark Matter Distribution in Abell 383: Evidence for a Shallow Density Cusp from Improved Lensing, Stellar Kinematic and X-ray Data
• The diverse evolutionary paths of simulated high-z massive, compact galaxies to z=0
• Size and velocity-dispersion evolution of early-type galaxies in a Lambda cold dark matter universe
• The Large Early Galaxy Astrophysics Census (LEGA-C) Data Release II: dynamical and stellar population properties of z ~< 1 galaxies in the COSMOS field
• The stellar velocity dispersion of a compact massive galaxy at z=1.80 using X-Shooter: confirmation of the evolution in the mass-size and mass-dispersion relations
• The Role of Black Hole Feedback on Size and Structural Evolution in Massive Galaxies
• MOSFIRE Spectroscopy of Quiescent Galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5. I - Evolution of Structural and Dynamical Properties
• The MOSDEF Survey: Dynamical and Baryonic Masses and Kinematic Structures of Star-Forming Galaxies at $1.4\le z\le 2.6$
• Redshift Evolution of the Galaxy Velocity Dispersion Function
• Correcting the z~8 Galaxy Luminosity Function for Gravitational Lensing Magnification Bias
• Larger sizes of massive quiescent early-type galaxies in clusters than in the field at 0.8 < z < 1.5
• A Massive Galaxy in its Core Formation Phase Three Billion Years After the Big Bang
• Keck-I MOSFIRE spectroscopy of compact star-forming galaxies at z$\gtrsim$2: High velocity dispersions in progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies
• Hiding in plain sight: An abundance of compact massive spheroids in the local Universe
• No evidence for a dependence of the mass size relation of early-type galaxies on environment in the local Universe
• Tight Correlations Between Massive Galaxy Structural Properties and Dynamics: The Mass Fundamental Plane Was in Place by z~2
• The fate of high-redshift massive compact galaxies
• Massive and Newly Dead: Discovery of a Significant Population of Galaxies with High Velocity Dispersions and Strong Balmer Lines at z~1.5 from Deep Keck Spectra and HST/WFC3 Imaging
• Minor vs Major Mergers: The Stellar Mass Growth of Massive Galaxies from z=3 using Number Density Selection Techniques
• Evolution of Galaxy Shapes from Prolate to Oblate through Compaction Events
• Wet Compaction to a Blue Nugget: a Critical Phase in Galaxy Evolution
• A direct constraint on the gas content of a massive, passively evolving elliptical galaxy at z = 1.43
• The Decomposed Bulge and Disk Size-Mass Relations of Massive Galaxies at 1<z<3 in CANDELS
• The evolution of galaxy size and morphology at z~0.5-3.0 in the GOODS-N region with HST/WFC3 data
• The mass, colour, and structural evolution of today's massive galaxies since z~5
• The Number Density of Quiescent Compact Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift
• The number density of superdense early-type galaxies at 1<z<2 and the local cluster galaxies
• Early-type galaxies at z~1.3. IV. Scaling relations in different environments
• Evolution of Quiescent and Star-Forming Galaxies Since z~1.5 as a Function of Their Velocity Dispersions
• Young ages and other intriguing properties of massive compact galaxies in the Local Universe
• Origin of Star-Forming Rings around Massive Centres in Massive Galaxies at $z<4$
• The Size Evolution of Passive Galaxies: Observations from the Wide Field Camera 3 Early Release Science Program
• Caught in the act: gas and stellar velocity dispersions in a fast quenching compact star-forming galaxy at z~1.7
• SHARP - I. A high-resolution multi-band view of the infra-red Einstein ring of JVAS B1938+666
• On the central stellar mass density and the inside-out growth of early-type galaxies
• Dozens of compact and high velocity-dispersion early-type galaxies in Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Redshift evolution of the dynamical properties of massive galaxies from SDSS-III/BOSS
• A Compact Early-type Galaxy at z = 0.6 Under a Magnifying Lens: Evidence For Inside-out Growth
• The Diverse Molecular Gas Content of Massive Galaxies Undergoing Quenching at z~1
• SINFONI/VLT 3D spectroscopy of massive galaxies: Evidence of rotational support at z~1.4
• The kinematics of massive quiescent galaxies at $1.4<z<2.1$: dark matter fractions, IMF variation, and the relation to local early-type galaxies
• The Impact of Strong Gravitational Lensing on Observed Lyman-Break Galaxy Numbers at 4<z<8 in the GOODS and the XDF Blank Fields
• MAGAZ3NE: High Stellar Velocity Dispersions for Ultra-Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 3$
• Satellites around massive galaxies since z~2
• The Evolutionary Pathways of Disk-, Bulge-, and Halo-dominated Galaxies
• The Fundamental Plane of massive quiescent galaxies out to z~2
• Compaction-Driven Black Hole Growth
• Ultra deep sub-kpc view of nearby massive compact galaxies
• Selection of massive evolved galaxies at $3\le z\le 4.5$ in the CANDELS fields
• Consistent dynamical and stellar masses with potential light IMF in massive quiescent galaxies at $3<z<4$ using velocity dispersions measurements with MOSFIRE
• The stellar initial mass function at 0.9<z<1.5
• The abundance of compact quiescent galaxies since z ~ 0.6
• Disky elliptical galaxies and the allegedly over-massive black hole in the compact massive `ES' galaxy NGC 1271
• The interstellar medium and feedback in the progenitors of the compact passive galaxies at z~2
• The Relation between Dynamical Mass-to-Light Ratio and Color for Massive Quiescent Galaxies out to z~2 and Comparison with Stellar Population Synthesis Models
• HST/WFC3 Near-Infrared spectroscopy of quenched galaxies at z~1.5 from the WISP Survey: Stellar population properties
• Stellar Velocity Dispersion for a Strongly-Lensed, Intermediate-Mass Quiescent Galaxy at z=2.8
• Evidence for (and Against) Progenitor Bias in the Size Growth of Compact Red Galaxies
• Ultramassive dense early-type galaxies: velocity dispersions and number density evolution since z=1.6
• The evolution of disc galaxies with and without classical bulges since z~1
• The discrepancy between dynamical and stellar masses in massive compact galaxies traces non-homology
• Mass and size growth of early-type galaxies by dry mergers in cluster environments
• Evolution of Massive Galaxy Structural Properties and Sizes via Star Formation In the GOODS NICMOS Survey
• Merger-driven evolution of the effective stellar initial mass function of massive early-type galaxies
• A comparison of the most massive quiescent galaxies from $z\sim 3$ to the present: slow evolution in size, and spheroid-dominated
• Large Size Scatter of Passively Evolving Lensed Galaxies at z~2 in CLASH
• COOL-LAMPS II. Characterizing the Size and Star Formation History of a Bright Strongly Lensed Early-Type Galaxy at Redshift 1.02
• Constraints on the evolutionary mechanisms of massive galaxies since $z\sim 1$ from their velocity dispersions
• The abundance of massive compact galaxies at $1.0<z<3.0$ in 3D-HST/CANDELS
• X-ray Sources in the SSA22 Chandra Field
• Linking Compact Dwarf Starburst Galaxies in the RESOLVE Survey to Downsized Blue Nuggets
• Late growth of early-type galaxies in low-z massive clusters
• The size and mass evolution of the massive galaxies over cosmic time
• Dynamical masses of early-type galaxies at z~2
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: How the stellar populations of passive central galaxies depend on stellar and halo mass
• Quiescent Galaxy Size, Velocity Dispersion, and Dynamical Mass Evolution