The extreme synchronicity of stellar ages of red galaxies in the JKCS041 cluster at z=2.2

Abstract

Above redshift z ~ 1.4, we known little or nothing about the stellar ages of red galaxies in clusters, yet at these high redshifts important changes are predicted by current renditions of galaxy formation models embedded in the standard hierarchical paradigm of structure formation. Red-sequence galaxies in the cluster JKCS041 at z=2.2 show a tight distribution in colour that indicates a star formation history that is highly synchronized across galaxies. Specifically, we measure a spread in stellar age of 160+/-30 Myr, in marked disagreement with the current understanding of how massive red galaxies form in clusters, i.e. if they are produced somewhat stochastically in merging episodes that sometimes involve gas, hence star formation. The existence of a tight distribution in colour when the universe was at one quarter of its current age implies that mechanisms that have not yet been implemented in current galaxy formation scenarios long ago began to shape the star formation history of red cluster galaxies.

A&A Letters, in press, english-revised version

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Spectroscopic Confirmation of the Rich z=1.80 Galaxy Cluster JKCS 041 Using the WFC3 Grism: Environmental Trends in the Ages and Structure of Quiescent Galaxies
• The WIRCam Deep Survey I: Counts, colours and mass-functions derived from near-infrared imaging in the CFHTLS deep fields
• JKCS041: a Coma cluster progenitor at z=1.803
• HerMES: Clusters of Dusty Galaxies Uncovered by Herschel and Planck
• A low-scatter survey-based mass proxy for clusters of galaxies
• H-ATLAS: A Candidate High Redshift Cluster/Protocluster of Star-Forming Galaxies
• Observational evidence that massive cluster galaxies were forming stars at z~2.5 and did not grow in mass at later times
• Star formation and environment in clusters up to z~2.2