A Large Population of Massive Compact Post-Starburst Galaxies at z>1: Implications for the Size Evolution and Quenching Mechanism of Quiescent Galaxies

Abstract

We study the growth of the red sequence through the number density and structural evolution of a sample of young and old quiescent galaxies at 0<z<2. The galaxies are selected from the NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey (NMBS) in the Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) field. We find a large population of massive young recently quenched ("post-starburst") galaxies at z>1 that are almost non-existent at z<1; their number density is 5 x 10^{-5} Mpc^{-3} at z=2, whereas it is a factor of 10 less at z=0.5. The observed number densities of young and old quiescent galaxies at z>1 are consistent with a simple model in which all old quiescent galaxies were once identified as post-starburst galaxies. We find that the overall population of quiescent galaxies have smaller sizes and slightly more elongated shapes at higher redshift, in agreement with other recent studies. Interestingly, the most recently quenched galaxies at 1<z<2 are not larger, and possibly even smaller, than older galaxies at those redshifts. This result is inconsistent with the idea that the evolution of the average size of quiescent galaxies is largely driven by continuous transformations of larger, star-forming galaxies: in that case, the youngest quiescent galaxies would also be the largest. Instead, mergers or other mechanisms appear to be required to explain the size growth of quiescent galaxies from z=2 to the present.

Accepted for publication in ApJ, 8 pages, 7 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (18)

• Cold streams in early massive hot haloes as the main mode of galaxy formation
• COSMOS Photometric Redshifts with 30-bands for 2-deg2
• Formation of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift: Cold Streams, Clumpy Disks and Compact Spheroids
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• Detection of quiescent galaxies in a bicolor sequence from z=0-2
• Galaxy Structure and Mode of Star Formation in the SFR-Mass Plane from z ~ 2.5 to z ~ 0.1
• The NEWFIRM Medium-band Survey: Photometric Catalogs, Redshifts and the Bimodal Color Distribution of Galaxies out to z~3
• What do we learn from IRAC observations of galaxies at 2 < z < 3.5?
• The number density and mass density of star-forming and quiescent galaxies at 0.4 < z < 2.2
• The Majority of Compact Massive Galaxies at z~2 are Disk Dominated
• Bursting and Quenching in Massive Galaxies without Major Mergers or AGNs
• Post-starburst galaxies: more than just an interesting curiosity
• The Detection of a Red Sequence of Massive Field Galaxies at z~2.3 and its Evolution to z~0
• The VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey. Color bimodality and the mix of galaxy populations up to z~2
• Redshift Evolution of the Galaxy Velocity Dispersion Function
• The DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey: Environments of Poststarburst Galaxies at z~0.1 and z~0.8
• GMASS Ultradeep Spectroscopy of Galaxies at z~2. III: The emergence of the color bimodality at z~2
• Halpha and 4000 Angstrom Break Measurements for ~3500 K-selected Galaxies at 0.5<z<2.0

Cited by in corpus (190)

• Constraining the Low-Mass Slope of the Star Formation Sequence at 0.5<z<2.5
• The KMOS^3D Survey: design, first results, and the evolution of galaxy kinematics from 0.7<z<2.7
• 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 MOSFIRE Deep Evolution Field (MOSDEF) Survey: Rest-Frame Optical Spectroscopy for ~1500 H-Selected Galaxies at 1.37 < z < 3.8
• A Public Ks-selected Catalog in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Field: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Population Parameters
• The Dust Attenuation Law in Distant Galaxies: Evidence for Variation with Spectral Type
• A Link Between Star Formation Quenching and Inner Stellar Mass Density in SDSS Central Galaxies
• The Size Evolution of Star-forming and Quenched Galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulation
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 CLS UDS field: Physical properties of 707 Sub-millimetre Galaxies
• How do minor mergers promote inside-out growth of ellipticals, transforming the size, density profile and dark matter fraction?
• Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3<z<4 quiescent 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
• Galaxy Morphology and Star Formation in the Illustris Simulation at z=0
• 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
• Direct measurements of dust attenuation in z~1.5 star-forming galaxies from 3D-HST: Implications for dust geometry and star formation rates
• The CANDELS/SHARDS multi-wavelength catalog in GOODS-N: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts, Stellar Masses, Emission line fluxes and Star Formation Rates
• CANDELS+3D-HST: compact SFGs at z~2-3, the progenitors of the first quiescent galaxies
• X-rays across the galaxy population - II. The distribution of AGN accretion rates as a function of stellar mass and redshift
• The Constant Average Relationship between Dust-obscured Star Formation and Stellar Mass from $z=0$ to $z=2.5$
• Fast, Slow, Early, Late: Quenching Massive Galaxies at z~0.8
• Deep near-infrared spectroscopy of passively evolving galaxies at z>1.4
• Size Evolution of Spheroids in a Hierarchical Universe
• Quiescent Galaxies in the 3D-HST Survey: Spectroscopic Confirmation of a Large Number of Galaxies with Relatively Old Stellar Populations at z~2
• The evolution of post-starburst galaxies from z=2 to z= 0.5
• Stellar populations from spectroscopy of a large sample of quiescent galaxies at z > 1: Measuring the contribution of progenitor bias to early size growth
• An ALMA Survey of Submillimeter Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: Near-infrared morphologies and stellar sizes
• 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
• SHARDS: an optical spectro-photometric survey of distant galaxies
• Galaxy evolution in overdense environments at high redshift: passive early-type galaxies in a cluster at redshift 2
• Predicting Quiescence: The Dependence of Specific Star Formation Rate on Galaxy Size and Central Density at 0.5<z<2.5
• The Progenitors of the Compact Early-Type Galaxies at High-Redshift
• Resolving the Discrepancy of Galaxy Merger Fraction Measurements at z ~ 0 - 3
• Galaxy Structure as a Driver of the Star Formation Sequence Slope and Scatter
• The impact of stellar feedback on the structure, size and morphology of galaxies in Milky Way size dark matter haloes
• Feeding compact bulges and supermassive black holes with low angular-momentum cosmic gas at high redshift
• The KMOS Deep Survey (KDS) I: dynamical measurements of typical star-forming galaxies at z $\simeq$ 3.5
• From Starburst to Quiescence: Testing AGN feedback in Rapidly Quenching Post-Starburst Galaxies
• 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 VIPERS Multi-Lambda Survey. II. Diving with massive galaxies in 22 square degrees since z = 1.5
• The evolution of the cold interstellar medium in galaxies following a starburst
• Demographics of Star-forming Galaxies since $z\sim 2.5$. I. The $UVJ$ Diagram in CANDELS
• An ALMA survey of the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UKIDSS/UDS field: number counts of submillimeter galaxies
• Structural Evolution of Early-type Galaxies to z=2.5 in CANDELS
• Massive Close Pairs Measure Rapid Galaxy Assembly in Mergers at High Redshift
• Massive post-starburst galaxies at z > 1 are compact proto-spheroids
• The Nature of Massive Transition Galaxies in CANDELS, GAMA, and Cosmological Simulations
• The evolution of the number density of compact galaxies
• Massive quenched galaxies at z~0.7 retain large molecular gas reservoirs
• The origins of post-starburst galaxies at z<0.05
• Spatially Resolved Stellar Kinematics from LEGA-C: Increased Rotational Support in z~0.8 Quiescent Galaxies
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): The mechanisms for quiescent galaxy formation at $z<1$
• Beyond UVJ: More Efficient Selection of Quiescent Galaxies With UV / Mid-IR Fluxes
• A new method for classifying galaxy SEDs from multi-wavelength photometry
• The Evolution of Environmental Quenching Timescales to $z\sim 1.6$
• Minor Mergers or Progenitor Bias? The Stellar Ages of Small and Large Quenched Early-Type Galaxies
• Half-mass radii of quiescent and star-forming galaxies evolve slowly from 0 < z < 2.5: implications for galaxy assembly histories
• Tight Correlations Between Massive Galaxy Structural Properties and Dynamics: The Mass Fundamental Plane Was in Place by z~2
• The structure of post-starburst galaxies at $0.5<z<2$: evidence for two distinct quenching routes at different epochs
• Recovering the star formation histories of recently-quenched galaxies: the impact of model and prior choices
• 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
• Evolution Through the Post-Starburst Phase: Using Post-Starburst Galaxies as Laboratories for Understanding the Processes that Drive Galaxy Evolution
• Preventing Star Formation in Early-Type Galaxies with Late-Time Stellar Heating
• The Relation between Galaxy Structure and Spectral Type: Implications for the Buildup of the Quiescent Galaxy Population at 0.5<z<2.0
• The intrinsic characteristics of galaxies on the SFR-stellar mass plane at 1.2<z<4: I. the correlation between stellar age, central density and position relative to the main sequence
• GASP XVII. HI imaging of the jellyfish galaxy JO206: gas stripping and enhanced star formation
• Evolution of Galaxy Shapes from Prolate to Oblate through Compaction Events
• Dissecting the size-mass and ${\Sigma }_1$-mass relations at 1.0 < z < 2.5: galaxy mass profiles and color gradients as a function of spectral shape
• Wet Compaction to a Blue Nugget: a Critical Phase in Galaxy Evolution
• Morphological Fractions of Galaxies in WINGS Clusters: revisiting the Morphology-Density Paradigm
• ALMA view of a massive spheroid progenitor: a compact rotating core of molecular gas in an AGN host at z=2.226
• ALMA measures rapidly depleted molecular gas reservoirs in massive quiescent galaxies at z~1.5
• Optically-faint massive Balmer Break Galaxies at z>3 in the CANDELS/GOODS fields
• Rejuvenation in $z\sim 0.8$ quiescent galaxies in LEGA-C
• A new population of recently quenched elliptical galaxies in the SDSS
• Stellar Metallicities and Elemental Abundance Ratios of z~1.4 Massive Quiescent Galaxies
• CLEAR II: Evidence for Early Formation of the Most Compact Quiescent Galaxies at High Redshift
• CLEAR: Emission Line Ratios at Cosmic High Noon
• The mass, colour, and structural evolution of today's massive galaxies since z~5
• Efficient satellite quenching at z~1 from the GEEC2 spectroscopic survey of galaxy groups
• A spectroscopic sample of massive, evolved z~2 galaxies: Implications for the evolution of the mass-size relation
• AGN-Host Connection at 0.5 < z < 2.5: A rapid evolution of AGN fraction in red galaxies during the last 10 Gyr
• Constraints on Quenching of $z\lesssim 2$ Massive Galaxies from the Evolution of the average Sizes of Star-Forming and Quenched Populations in COSMOS
• Evolution of Quiescent and Star-Forming Galaxies Since z~1.5 as a Function of Their Velocity Dispersions
• On the fast quenching of young low-mass galaxies up to z $\sim$ 0.6: new spotlight on the lead role of environment
• Color gradients along the quiescent galaxy sequence: clues to quenching and structural growth
• Nature of H-alpha selected galaxies at z>2. II. Clumpy galaxies and compact star-forming galaxies
• The Interstellar Medium of Quiescent Galaxies and its Evolution With Time
• COSMOS2020: Exploring the dawn of quenching for massive galaxies at 3 < z < 5 with a new colour selection method
• The VIMOS Ultra Deep Survey: Ly$\alpha$ Emission and Stellar Populations of Star-Forming Galaxies at 2<z<2.5
• The strong correlation between post-starburst fraction and environment
• Spectral Energy Distributions in Three Deep-Drilling Fields of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time: Source Classification and Galaxy Properties
• Extremely Low Molecular Gas Content in a Compact, Quiescent Galaxy at z=1.522
• Stellar mass functions of galaxies at 4<z<7 from an IRAC-selected sample in COSMOS/UltraVISTA: limits on the abundance of very massive galaxies
• First results from the VIRIAL survey: the stellar content of $UVJ$-selected quiescent galaxies at $1.5<z<2$ from KMOS
• Origin of Star-Forming Rings around Massive Centres in Massive Galaxies at $z<4$
• Caught in the act: gas and stellar velocity dispersions in a fast quenching compact star-forming galaxy at z~1.7
• Rapid Quenching of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon
• The Differential Size Growth of Field and Cluster Galaxies at z=2.1 Using the ZFOURGE Survey
• Morphology Dependence Of Stellar Age in Quenched Galaxies at Redshift ~ 1.2: Massive Compact Galaxies Are Older Than More Extended Ones
• HST grism spectroscopy of z~3 massive quiescent galaxies: Approaching the metamorphosis
• A duality in the origin of bulges and spheroidal galaxies
• High-velocity outflows in massive post-starburst galaxies at z > 1
• Shape Evolution of Massive Early-Type Galaxies: Confirmation of Increased Disk Prevalence at z>1
• The Stellar Haloes of Massive Elliptical Galaxies III: Kinematics at Large Radius
• One Plane for All: Massive Star-Forming and Quiescent Galaxies Lie on the Same Mass Fundamental Plane at z~0 and z~0.7
• ZFOURGE: Using Composite Spectral Energy Distributions to Characterize Galaxy Populations at 1<z<4
• Tracing the evolution of dust-obscured activity using sub-millimetre galaxy populations from STUDIES and AS2UDS
• A machine-learning method for identifying multi-wavelength counterparts of submillimeter galaxies: training and testing using AS2UDS and ALESS
• Quenching and the UVJ diagram in the SIMBA cosmological simulation
• Star Formation and Environmental Quenching of GEEC2 Group Galaxies at z~1
• Early JWST imaging reveals strong optical and NIR color gradients in galaxies at $z\sim 2$ driven mostly by dust
• Inverse stellar population age gradients of post-starburst galaxies at z=0.8 with LEGA-C
• The Evolutionary Pathways of Disk-, Bulge-, and Halo-dominated Galaxies
• Compaction-Driven Black Hole Growth
• On the Shapes and Structures of High-Redshift Compact Galaxies
• KROSS: Mapping the Ha emission across the star-formation sequence at z~1
• Selection of massive evolved galaxies at $3\le z\le 4.5$ in the CANDELS fields
• The abundance of compact quiescent galaxies since z ~ 0.6
• Compact, bulge dominated structures of spectroscopically confirmed quiescent galaxies at z~3
• Leveraging 3D-HST Grism Redshifts to Quantify Photometric Redshift Performance
• The Evolution of Galaxies at Constant Number Density: A Less Biased View of Star Formation, Quenching, and Structural Formation
• CEERS: Spatially Resolved UV and mid-IR Star Formation in Galaxies at 0.2 < z < 2.5: The Picture from the Hubble and James Webb Space Telescopes
• Massive quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 3$: a comparison of selection, stellar population and structural properties with simulation predictions
• Morphological evolution in situ: Disk-dominated cluster red sequences at z ~ 1.25
• Rise and fall of post-starburst galaxies in Magneticum Pathfinder
• The Compact Structures of Massive $z\sim 0.7$ Post-Starburst Galaxies in the SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E Sample
• Quantifying the suppression of the (un)-obscured star formation in galaxy cluster cores at 0.2$\lesssim$$z$$\lesssim$0.9
• HST/WFC3 grism observations of $z\sim 1$ clusters: evidence for evolution in the mass-size relation of quiescent galaxies from poststarburst galaxies
• CLEAR: Paschen-$\beta$ Star Formation Rates and Dust Attenuation of Low Redshift Galaxies
• On the Cosmic Web Elongation in Fuzzy Dark Matter Cosmologies: Effects on Density Profiles, Shapes and Alignments of Halos
• Evidence for (and Against) Progenitor Bias in the Size Growth of Compact Red Galaxies
• The Evolution of Post-Starburst Galaxies from $z\sim 1$ to the Present
• The Outer Stellar Mass of Massive Galaxies: A Simple Tracer of Halo Mass with Scatter Comparable to Richness and Reduced Projection Effects
• Across the Green Valley with HST grisms: colour evolution, crossing time-scales and the growth of the red sequence at $z=1.0-1.8$
• ZFIRE: Similar Stellar Growth in H$\alpha$-emitting Cluster and Field Galaxies at z~2
• The State of the Molecular Gas in Post-Starburst Galaxies
• SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E Survey: Massive z$\sim$0.6 Post-Starburst Galaxies Exhibit Flat Age Gradients
• Locating Star-Forming Regions in Quasar Host Galaxies
• Differences in the structural properties and star-formation rates of field and cluster galaxies at z~1
• Simulations Find Our Accounting of Dust-Obscured Star Formation May Be Incomplete
• A complete distribution of redshifts for sub-millimetre galaxies in the SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey UDS field
• Identification of z~>2 Herschel 500 micron sources using color-deconfusion
• Chemical evolution of local post-starburst galaxies: Implications for the mass-metallicity relation
• The role of quenching time in the evolution of the mass-size relation of passive galaxies from the WISP survey
• When the Well Runs Dry: Modeling Environmental Quenching of High-mass Satellites in Massive Clusters at \boldmath$z\gtrsim 1$
• Merger Signatures are Common, but not Universal, In Massive, Recently-Quenched Galaxies at z~0.7
• The large molecular gas fraction of post-starburst galaxies at z > 1
• Physical properties of compact star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 2-3$
• A comparison of the most massive quiescent galaxies from $z\sim 3$ to the present: slow evolution in size, and spheroid-dominated
• No evidence for excess AGN activity in recently quenched massive galaxies at cosmic noon
• 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
• CLEAR: The Morphological Evolution of Galaxies in the Green Valley
• Defying jet-gas alignment in two radio galaxies at z~2 with extended light profiles: Similarities to brightest cluster galaxies
• 3D-DASH: The Widest Near-Infrared Hubble Space Telescope Survey
• The MOSDEF Survey: Stellar Continuum Spectra and Star Formation Histories of Active, Transitional, and Quiescent Galaxies at 1.4$<$\lowercase{z}$<$2.6
• Quenching, Mergers and Age Profiles for z=2 Galaxies in IllustrisTNG
• Compact Galaxies at Intermediate Redshifts Quench Faster than Normal-sized Galaxies
• Age and metal gradients in massive quiescent galaxies at $0.6\lesssim z\lesssim 1.0$: implications for quenching and assembly histories
• Post-starburst galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA: Two broad categories of evolutionary pathways
• Ages and metallicities of quiescent galaxies: confronting broadband ($UVJ$) colours with stellar absorption lines
• Structures, stellar population properties, AGN fractions, and environments of massive compact galaxies at $1<z<2$ in 3D--{\it HST}/CANDELS
• DESI Survey Validation Spectra Reveal an Increasing Fraction of Recently Quenched Galaxies at $z\sim 1$
• DESI Massive Post-Starburst Galaxies at $\mathbf{z}\sim 1.2$ have compact structures and dense cores
• J-PLUS: the impact of bars on quenching time-scales in nearby green valley disc galaxies
• COOL-LAMPS II. Characterizing the Size and Star Formation History of a Bright Strongly Lensed Early-Type Galaxy at Redshift 1.02
• SQuIGG$\vec{L}$E: Observational Evidence of Low Ongoing Star Formation Rates in Gas-Rich Post-Starburst Galaxies
• Galaxy populations of ProtoClusters in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations
• RUBIES spectroscopically confirms the high number density of quiescent galaxies from $2<\mathbf{z}<5$
• Harnessing the Hubble Space Telescope Archives: A Catalogue of 21,926 Interacting Galaxies
• Empirical Dust Attenuation Model Leads to More Realistic UVJ Diagram for TNG100 Galaxies
• Recently Quenched Galaxies at z = 0.2 - 4.8 in the COSMOS UltraVISTA Field
• The abundance of massive compact galaxies at $1.0<z<3.0$ in 3D-HST/CANDELS
• Quenching of Galaxies at Cosmic Noon: Understanding the Effect of Environment
• The diverse quenching pathways of post-starburst galaxies in SDSS-IV MaNGA
• Multi-band analysis of strong gravitationally lensed post-blue nugget candidates from the Kilo-Degree Survey
• Central Concentration of Asymmetric Features in Post-starburst Galaxies at $z\sim 0.8$
• Late growth of early-type galaxies in low-z massive clusters
• The MOSDEF Survey: A New View of a Remarkable z=1.89 Merger
• MIDIS: Unveiling the Star Formation History in massive galaxies at $1<z<4.5$ with spectro-photometric analysis
• 3D intrinsic shapes of quiescent galaxies in observations and simulations
• Now you see it, now you don't: Star formation truncation precedes the loss of molecular gas by ~100 Myr in massive post-starburst galaxies at z~0.6
• The Compact Star-Forming Galaxies at $2<z<3$ in 3D-HST/CANDELS: AGN and Non-AGN Physical Properties
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: How the stellar populations of passive central galaxies depend on stellar and halo mass
• The multiwavelength structure of post-starburst galaxies at 0.5 < z < 3 with JWST PRIMER: compact morphologies and residual disturbances
• SQuIGGLE: Studying Quenching in Intermediate-z Galaxies -- Gas, AnguLar Momentum, and Evolution