Can Minor Merging Account for the Size Growth of Quiescent Galaxies? New Results from the CANDELS Survey

Abstract

The presence of extremely compact galaxies at z~2 and their subsequent growth in physical size has been the cause of much puzzlement. We revisit the question using deep infrared Wide Field Camera 3 data to probe the rest-frame optical structure of 935 host galaxies selected with 0.4<z<2.5 and stellar masses M* > 10^10.7 Msol using optical and near-infrared photometry in the UKIRT Ultra Deep Survey and GOODS-South fields of the CANDELS survey. At each redshift, the most compact sources are those with little or no star formation, and we find that the mean size of these systems grows by a factor of 3.5 +- 0.3 over this redshift interval. The new data are sufficiently deep to enable us to identify companions to these hosts whose stellar masses are ten times smaller, while still yielding suitably accurate photometric redshifts to define a likely physical association. By searching for faint companions around 404 quiescent hosts within a projected physical annulus 10 < R < 30 kpc/h, we estimate the minor merger rate over the redshift range 0.4 < z < 2. After correcting for contamination from projected pairs, we find that 13-18% of quiescent hosts have likely physical companions with stellar mass ratios of 0.1 or greater. Mergers of these companions will typically increase the host mass by 6+-2% per merger timescale. We estimate the minimum growth rate necessary to explain the declining abundance of compact galaxies. Using a simple model of merging motivated by recent numerical simulations, we then assess whether mergers of the faint companions with their hosts are sufficient to explain this minimal rate. We find that mergers with mass ratios > 0.1 may explain most of the size evolution observed at z >~ 1 if a relatively short merger timescale is assumed, but the rapid growth seen at higher redshift likely requires additional physical processes.

Accepted to ApJ. Updated following referee report, with expanded comparisons to published mass-size and pair fraction measurements (Figs. 4 and 9)

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• The rest-frame optical sizes of massive galaxies with suppressed star formation at $z\sim 4$
• MAGAZ3NE: High Stellar Velocity Dispersions for Ultra-Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 3$
• Satellites around massive galaxies since z~2
• Evidence for Inside-Out Galaxy Growth and Quenching of a z~2 Compact Galaxy from High-Resolution Molecular Gas Imaging
• Connecting Compact Star-forming and Extended Star-forming Galaxies at Low-redshift: Implications for Galaxy Compaction and Quenching
• The Number Densities and Stellar Populations of Massive Galaxies at 3 < z < 6: A Diverse, Rapidly Forming Population in the Early Universe
• Evidence for Widespread AGN Activity among Massive Quiescent Galaxies at z ~ 2
• Galaxy environments over cosmic time: the non-evolving radial galaxy distributions around massive galaxies since z=1.6
• Ultra deep sub-kpc view of nearby massive compact galaxies
• Consistent dynamical and stellar masses with potential light IMF in massive quiescent galaxies at $3<z<4$ using velocity dispersions measurements with MOSFIRE
• The Missing Satellite Problem in 3D
• A cosmological context for compact massive galaxies
• Stellar masses, sizes, and radial profiles for 465 nearby early-type galaxies: an extension to the Spitzer Survey of Stellar Structure in Galaxies (S${}^4$G)
• The Size-Mass relation at Rest-Frame $1.5\mu$m from JWST/NIRCam in the COSMOS-WEB and PRIMER-COSMOS fields
• The Rising Stellar Velocity Dispersion of M87 from Integrated Starlight
• Stellar populations of galaxies in the ALHAMBRA survey up to $z\sim 1$. IV. Properties of quiescent galaxies on the stellar mass$-$size plane
• The Gas-phase Metallicity Profiles of Star-forming Galaxies in the Modified Accretion Disk Framework
• On the (Lack of) Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function of Massive Galaxies from $z$=1.5 to 0.4
• How Robust Are the Size Measurements of High-redshift Compact Galaxies?
• Ionizing stellar population in the disk of NGC 3310 $-$ I. The impact of a minor merger on galaxy evolution
• Size distribution of galaxies in SDSS DR7: weak dependence on halo environment
• Testing the presence of multiple photometric components in nearby early-type galaxies using SDSS
• The imprint of dark matter haloes on the size and velocity dispersion evolution of early-type galaxies
• Molecular Gas Reservoirs in Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $\mathrm{z}\sim 0.7$ Linked to Late Time Star Formation
• Total mass density slopes of early-type galaxies using Jeans dynamical modelling at redshifts $0.29<z<0.55$
• KETJU -- resolving small-scale supermassive black hole dynamics in GADGET-4
• Scaling relations of cluster elliptical galaxies at z~1.3. Distinguishing luminosity and structural evolution
• The flat density profiles of massive, and relaxed galaxy clusters
• A Unique View of AGN-Driven Molecular Outflows: The Discovery of a Massive Galaxy Counterpart to a $z=2.4$ High-Metallicity Damped Lyman-$\alpha$ Absorber
• Merging Galaxies with Tidal Tails in COSMOS to z=1
• The Stripe 82 Massive Galaxy Project III: A Lack of Growth Among Massive Galaxies
• Size growth of red-sequence early-type galaxies in clusters in the last 10 Gyr
• HST/WFC3 Near-Infrared spectroscopy of quenched galaxies at z~1.5 from the WISP Survey: Stellar population properties
• The KMOS Cluster Survey (KCS) II - The Effect of Environment on the Structural Properties of Massive Cluster Galaxies at Redshift $1.39<z<1.61$
• Modeling the Ages and Metallicities of Early-Type Galaxies in Fundamental Plane Space
• Evidence for (and Against) Progenitor Bias in the Size Growth of Compact Red Galaxies
• RXJ0848.6+4453: The Evolution of Galaxy Sizes and Stellar Populations in a z=1.27 Cluster
• Satellite galaxies around present-day massive ellipticals
• Ultramassive dense early-type galaxies: velocity dispersions and number density evolution since z=1.6
• The stellar mass - size relation for cluster galaxies at z=1 with high angular resolution from the Gemini/GeMS multi-conjugate adaptive optics system
• Morphological evolution of cluster red sequence galaxies in the past 9 Gyr
• Understanding the Unique Assembly History of Central Group Galaxies
• What boost galaxy mergers in two massive galaxy protoclusters at z = 2.24
• Long Tidal Tails in Merging Galaxies and Their Implications
• The galaxy mass-size relation in CARLA clusters and proto-clusters at 1.4 < z < 2.8: larger cluster galaxy sizes
• Considerations for the Observability of Kinematically Offset Binary AGN
• Thirty-fold: Extreme gravitational lensing of a quiescent galaxy at $z=1.6$
• Quiescent galaxies in a virialized cluster at redshift 2: Evidence for accelerated size-growth
• The Formation History of Subhalos and the Evolution of Satellite Galaxies
• Where do quasar hosts lie with respect to the size-mass relation of galaxies?
• Modelling the accretion and feedback of supermassive black hole binaries in gas-rich galaxy mergers
• Living with Neighbors. II. Statistical Analysis of Flybys and Mergers of Dark Matter Halos in Cosmological Simulations
• The Carnegie-Irvine Galaxy Survey. IV. A Method to Determine the Average Mass Ratio of Mergers That Built Massive Elliptical Galaxies
• A Bayesian Hierarchical Approach to Galaxy-Galaxy Lensing
• Reconstructing the Assembly of Massive Galaxies. II. Galaxies Develop Massive and Dense Stellar Cores as They Evolve and Head Toward Quiescence at Cosmic Noon
• Studying the Physical Properties of Tidal Features I. Extracting Morphological Substructure in CANDELS Observations and VELA Simulations
• Effects of Baryon Mass Loss on Profiles of Large Galactic Dark Matter Haloes
• Two phase formation of massive elliptical galaxies : study through cross-correlation including spatial effect
• SCUBA-2 Ultra Deep Imaging EAO Survey (STUDIES) IV: Spatial clustering and halo masses of 450-$\mu$m-selected sub-millimeter galaxies
• The buildup of galaxies and their spheroids: the contributions of mergers, disc instabilities and star formation
• AGN accretion and black hole growth across compact and extended galaxy evolution phases
• Differences in the structural properties and star-formation rates of field and cluster galaxies at z~1
• Clustercentric distance or local density? It depends on galaxy morphology
• Galaxy size trends as a consequence of cosmology
• 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
• The KMOS Cluster Survey (KCS) III: fundamental plane of cluster galaxies at $z\simeq 1.80$ in JKCS 041
• Relic galaxy analogues in Illustris TNG50: the formation pathways of surviving red nuggets in a cosmological simulation
• Mass and size growth of early-type galaxies by dry mergers in cluster environments
• The Zurich Environmental Study (ZENS) of Galaxies in Groups along the Cosmic Web. V. Properties and Frequency of Merging Satellites and Centrals in Different Environments
• 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
• The IMACS Cluster Building Survey: V. Further Evidence for Starburst Recycling from Quantitative Galaxy Morphologies
• The interacting nature of dwarf galaxies hosting superluminous supernovae
• Quantifying the Origin and Distribution of Intracluster Light in a Fornax-like Cluster
• The structure of massive quiescent galaxies at z~3 in the CANDELS-COSMOS field
• DAWN JWST Archive: Morphology from profile fitting of over 340 000 galaxies in major fields
• Metal Deficiency in Two Massive Dead Galaxies at $z\sim 2$
• Gravitational orbits in the expanding universe revisited
• A tale of a rich cluster at z$\sim$0.8 as seen by the Star Formation Histories of its ETGs
• Massive Early-Type Galaxies in the HSC-SSP: Flux Fraction of Tidal Features and Merger Rates
• The evolution of compact massive quiescent and starforming galaxies derived from the $R_e-R_h$ and $M_{\mathrm{star}}-M_h$ relations
• The cosmic epoch dependence of environmental effects on size evolution of red-sequence early-type galaxies
• The role of quenching time in the evolution of the mass-size relation of passive galaxies from the WISP survey
• The Dearth of Difference between Central and Satellite Galaxies III. Environmental Dependence of Mass-Size and Mass-Structure Relations
• VLT/X-Shooter Near-Infrared Spectroscopy and HST Imaging of Gravitationally-Lensed z~2 Compact Quiescent Galaxies
• Characterizing the satellites of massive galaxies up to z~2: young populations to build the outskirts of nearby massive galaxies
• The role of major mergers in the size growth of intermediate-mass spheroids
• Stellar Kinematics and Environment at z~0.8 in the LEGA-C Survey: Massive, Slow-Rotators are Built First in Overdense Environments
• The XXL Survey: XXII. The XXL-North spectrophotometric sample and galaxy stellar mass function in X-ray detected groups and clusters
• A comparison of the most massive quiescent galaxies from $z\sim 3$ to the present: slow evolution in size, and spheroid-dominated
• On the limits of measuring the bulge and disk properties of local and high-redshift massive galaxies
• Massive spheroids can form in single minor mergers
• Color gradients reflect an inside-out growth in early-type galaxies of the cluster MACS J1206.2-0847
• The THESAN-ZOOM project: central starbursts and inside-out quenching govern galaxy sizes in the early Universe
• JADES: Rest-frame UV-to-NIR Size Evolution of Massive Quiescent Galaxies from Redshift z=5 to z=0.5
• HST F160W Imaging of Very Massive Galaxies at $1.5<z<3.0$: Diversity of Structures and the Effect of Close Pairs on Number Density Estimates
• The Size-Mass Relation of Post-Starburst Galaxies in the Local Universe
• Modelling the formation of today's massive ellipticals
• The Mass Growth and Stellar Ages of Galaxies: Observations versus Simulations
• Detection of Prominent Stellar Disks in the Progenitors of Present-day Massive Elliptical Galaxies
• Serendipitous discovery of a massive cD galaxy at z=1.096: Implications for the early formation and late evolution of cD galaxies
• The fate of a red nugget: In-situ star formation of satellites around a massive compact galaxy
• Galaxy and Mass Assembly (GAMA): Probing the merger histories of massive galaxies via stellar populations
• The Coevolution of Massive Quiescent Galaxies and Their Dark Matter Halos over the Last 6 Billion Years
• SCUBA-2 Ultra Deep Imaging EAO Survey (STUDIES) II: Structural Properties and Near-Infrared Morphologies of Faint Submillimeter Galaxies
• The mass dependence of structure, star formation rate, and mass assembly mode at 0.5<z< 2.5
• Environmental impacts on the rest-frame UV size and morphology ofstar-forming galaxies at $z\sim 2$
• The Puzzling Origin of Massive Compact Galaxies in MaNGA
• The host galaxy of the z=2.4 radio-loud AGN MRC 0406-244 as seen by HST
• The Fundamental Plane of cluster spheroidal galaxies at z$\sim 1.3$. Evidence for mass-dependent evolution
• Structures, stellar population properties, AGN fractions, and environments of massive compact galaxies at $1<z<2$ in 3D--{\it HST}/CANDELS
• Size and Spectroscopic Evolution of HectoMAP Quiescent Galaxies
• Fast Rotators at Cosmic Noon: Stellar Kinematics for 15 Quiescent Galaxies from JWST-SUSPENSE
• The Size Evolution of Elliptical Galaxies
• The differences between mass- and light-derived structural parameters over time for MaNGA Elliptical galaxies
• Post-starburst galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA: Two broad categories of evolutionary pathways
• Age and metal gradients in massive quiescent galaxies at $0.6\lesssim z\lesssim 1.0$: implications for quenching and assembly histories
• Ages and metallicities of quiescent galaxies: confronting broadband ($UVJ$) colours with stellar absorption lines
• JWST/NIRSpec spectroscopy of intermediate-mass quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 3-4$
• Isophote Shapes of Early-Type Galaxies in Massive Clusters at $z\sim 1$ and 0
• The effect of the morphological quenching mechanism on star formation activity at 0.5 < z < 1.5 in 3D-HST/CANDELS
• Galaxy mass-size segregation in the cosmic web from the CAVITY parent sample
• RABBITS -- II. The impact of AGN feedback on coalescing supermassive black holes in disc and elliptical galaxy mergers
• Stellar Mass Profiles of Quiescent Galaxies in Different Environments at $z\sim 0$
• 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 XXL survey. XLIX. Linking the members star formation histories to the cluster mass assembly in the z=1.98 galaxy cluster XLSSC 122
• Low Surface Brightness structures from annotated deep CFHT images: effects of the host galaxy's properties and environment
• Color dependence of clustering of massive galaxies at 0.5$\le z\le$2.5: similar spatial distributions between green valley galaxies and AGNs
• The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS). XII. Spatially Resolved Galaxy Star Formation Histories and True Evolutionary Paths at z > 1
• DESI Massive Post-Starburst Galaxies at $\mathbf{z}\sim 1.2$ have compact structures and dense cores
• Early-type galaxies at intermediate redshift observed with HST WFC3: perspectives on recent star-formation
• The Space Density of Intermediate Redshift, Extremely Compact, Massive Starburst Galaxies
• Searching for clues of past binary supermassive black hole mergers in nuclear star clusters
• The Fundamental Plane of Massive Quiescent Galaxies at z~2
• A robust two-parameter description of the stellar profile of elliptical galaxies
• COOL-LAMPS II. Characterizing the Size and Star Formation History of a Bright Strongly Lensed Early-Type Galaxy at Redshift 1.02
• The dark matter halo masses of elliptical galaxies as a function of observationally robust quantities
• Probing the mass assembly of massive nearby galaxies with deep imaging
• Can galaxy growth be sustained through HI-rich minor mergers?
• ALMA Observations for CO Emission from Luminous Lyman-break Galaxies at $z=6.0293$-$6.2037$
• Tracing Recent Star Formation of Red Early-type Galaxies out to $z$ $\sim$ 1
• Extremely Low Molecular Gas Content in the Vicinity of a Red Nugget Galaxy at $z=1.91$
• Evolution of massive quiescent galaxies via envelope accretion
• The abundance of massive compact galaxies at $1.0<z<3.0$ in 3D-HST/CANDELS
• A spectroscopically confirmed z=1.327 galaxy-scale deflector magnifying a z~8 Lyman-Break galaxy in the Brightest of Reionizing Galaxies survey
• Local galaxies with compact cores as the possible descendants of massive compact quiescent galaxies at high redshift
• Use of spatial cross correlation function to study formation mechanism of massive elliptical galaxies
• Measuring Structural Parameters Through Stacking Galaxy Images
• The Evolution of Bulge-Dominated Field Galaxies from z~1 to the Present
• A subarcsecond near-infrared view of massive galaxies at z > 1 with Gemini Multiconjugate Adaptive Optics
• Evanescent Matter
• Identifying clustering at high redshift through actively star-forming galaxies
• Intrinsic correlations of galaxy sizes in a hydrodynamical cosmological simulation
• Stellar population gradients at cosmic noon as a constraint to the evolution of passive galaxies
• The Gemini/HST Galaxy Cluster Project: Environment Effects on the Stellar Populations in the Lynx Clusters at z=1.27
• The effect of environment on the properties of the most massive galaxies at $0.5<z<2.5$ in the cosmos-dash field
• Multi-band analysis of strong gravitationally lensed post-blue nugget candidates from the Kilo-Degree Survey
• Effects of Environment on the Size Evolution of Quiescent Galaxies: Comparing Galaxies in Clusters and in the Field at Two Rest-frame Wavelengths
• Transforming galaxies with EASE: widespread structural changes enabled by short-lived spirals
• Implications of a spatially resolved main sequence for the size evolution of star forming galaxies
• Cosmic evolution of gas content and accretion
• The size and mass evolution of the massive galaxies over cosmic time
• Two-phase formation of galaxies: the coevolution between galaxies and dark matter halos
• IAUS295 -- The Intriguing Life of Massive Galaxies: Introducing the Final Discussion
• Dynamical masses of early-type galaxies at z~2
• A MaNGA about the Legacy I: Connecting the Assembly of Stellar Halo with the Average Star Formation History in Low-Redshift Massive Galaxies
• Structural evolution of quiescent galaxies at intermediate redshifts at UV and red rest-frame wavelengths
• Compact star forming galaxies as the progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies: clustering result
• Morphological Transformation and Star Formation Quenching of Massive Galaxies at 0.5 < z < 2.5 in 3D-HST/CANDELS
• Quiescent Galaxy Size, Velocity Dispersion, and Dynamical Mass Evolution
• The Compact Star-Forming Galaxies at $2<z<3$ in 3D-HST/CANDELS: AGN and Non-AGN Physical Properties
• The $10\mathrm{kpc}$ collar of early-type galaxies -- probing evolution by focusing on the inner stellar density profile
• Strong gravitational lensing with Euclid
• The satellite population around luminous red galaxies in the 25 square degree DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys Early Data Release
• Size-Mass Relation Shows Its Colours: Contrasting Physical Imprints of Galaxy Evolution in Rest-Frame UV and Optical
• pop-cosmos: Star formation over 12 Gyr from generative modelling of a deep infrared-selected galaxy catalogue
• Massive Neutrinos Promote the Size Growth of Early-Type Galaxies
• Newcomers and suburbanites can drive the evolution of the size-stellar mass relation of early type galaxies in galaxy clusters