Ultra deep sub-kpc view of nearby massive compact galaxies

Abstract

Using Gemini North telescope ultra deep and high resolution (sub-kpc) K-band adaptive optics imaging of a sample of 4 nearby (z~0.15) massive (~10^{11}M_sun) compact (R<1.5 kpc) galaxies, we have explored the structural properties of these rare objects with an unprecedented detail. Our surface brightness profiles expand over 12 magnitudes in range allowing us to explore the presence of any faint extended envelope on these objects down to stellar mass densities ~10^{6} M_sun/kpc^{2} at radial distances of ~15 kpc. We find no evidence for any extended faint tail altering the compactness of these galaxies. Our objects are elongated, resembling visually S0 galaxies, and have a central stellar mass density well above the stellar mass densities of objects with similar stellar mass but normal size in the present universe. If these massive compact objects will eventually transform into normal size galaxies, the processes driving this size growth will have to migrate around 2-3x10^{10}M_sun stellar mass from their inner (R<1.7 kpc) region towards their outskirts. Nearby massive compact galaxies share with high-z compact massive galaxies not only their stellar mass, size and velocity dispersion but also the shape of their profiles and the mean age of their stellar populations. This makes these singular galaxies unique laboratories to explore the early stages of the formation of massive galaxies.

Accepted for publication in ApJ Letter. Version revised to match the accepted version

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• The evolution of galaxy size and morphology at z~0.5-3.0 in the GOODS-N region with HST/WFC3 data
• The Decomposed Bulge and Disk Size-Mass Relations of Massive Galaxies at 1<z<3 in CANDELS
• Sizes, Colour gradients and Resolved Stellar Mass Distributions for the Massive Cluster Galaxies in XMMUJ2235-2557 at z = 1.39
• A spectroscopic sample of massive, evolved z~2 galaxies: Implications for the evolution of the mass-size relation
• Towards a census of super-compact massive galaxies in the Kilo Degree Survey
• From Diversity to Dichotomy, and Quenching: Milky-Way-Like and Massive-Galaxy Progenitors at 0.5<z<3.0
• The Effect of Many Minor Mergers on the Size Growth of Compact Quiescent Galaxies
• The impact of a non-universal Initial Mass Function on the Star Formation Histories of Early-Type Galaxies
• The first sample of spectroscopically confirmed ultra-compact massive galaxies in the Kilo Degree Survey
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• The supermassive black hole merger driven evolution of high-redshift red nuggets into present-day cored early-type galaxies
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• The formation of compact massive relic galaxies in MOND
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