The early early type: discovery of a passive galaxy at z=3

Abstract

We present the discovery of a massive, quiescent galaxy at z=2.99. We have obtained a HST/WFC3 spectrum of this object and measured its redshift from the detection of a deep 4000A break consistent with an old population and a high metallicity. By stellar population modeling of both its grism spectrum and broad-band photometry, we derive an age of ~0.7 Gyr, implying a formation redshift of z>4, and a mass >10^11 Msun. Although this passive galaxy is the most distant confirmed so far, we find that it is slightly less compact than other z>2 early-types of similar mass, being overall more analogous to those z~1.6 field early-type galaxies. The discovery of this object shows that early-type galaxies are detectable to at least z=3 and suggests that the diversity of structural properties found in z=1.4-2 ellipticals to earlier epochs could have its origin in a variety of formation histories among their progenitors.

6 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letters

References in corpus (7)

• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• Evidence for TP-AGB stars in high redshift galaxies, and their effect on deriving stellar population parameters
• Ages and metallicities of early-type galaxies in the SDSS: new insight into the physical origin of the colour-magnitude and the Mg2-sigmaV relations
• What do we learn from IRAC observations of galaxies at 2 < z < 3.5?
• A unified empirical model for infrared galaxy counts based on observed physical evolution of distant galaxies
• Rapid dust production in submillimeter galaxies at z>4?

Cited by in corpus (54)

• A massive, quiescent galaxy at redshift of z=3.717
• Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3<z<4 quiescent galaxies
• Quiescent galaxies 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang and their progenitors
• The ALPINE-ALMA [CII] Survey: The nature, luminosity function and star formation history of dusty galaxies up to z~6
• COSMOS2020: The Galaxy Stellar Mass Function: the assembly and star formation cessation of galaxies at $0.2<z\le 7.5$
• CANDELS+3D-HST: compact SFGs at z~2-3, the progenitors of the first quiescent galaxies
• Fast, Slow, Early, Late: Quenching Massive Galaxies at z~0.8
• Constraining The Assembly Of Normal And Compact Passively Evolving Galaxies From Redshift z=3 To The Present With CANDELS
• Quenching star formation with quasar outflows launched by trapped IR radiation
• The Massive Ancient Galaxies At $z>3$ NEar-infrared (MAGAZ3NE) Survey: Confirmation of Extremely Rapid Star-Formation and Quenching Timescales for Massive Galaxies in the Early Universe
• The Recent Burstiness of Star Formation in Galaxies at z~4.5 from H$\alpha$ Measurements
• Jekyll & Hyde: quiescence and extreme obscuration in a pair of massive galaxies 1.5 Gyr after the Big Bang
• WFC3 grism confirmation of the distant cluster Cl J1449+0856 at z=2.00: Quiescent and star-forming galaxy populations
• The unexpectedly large dust and gas content of quiescent galaxies at z>1.4
• Infrared color selection of massive galaxies at z > 3
• Linking galaxy structural properties and star formation activity to black hole activity with IllustrisTNG
• Inferring the star formation histories of the most massive and passive early-type galaxies at z<0.3
• Stellar Populations of over one thousand $z\sim 0.8$ Galaxies from LEGA-C: Ages and Star Formation Histories from D${}_n$4000 and H$\delta$
• On the formation time scale of massive cluster ellipticals based on deep near-IR spectroscopy at z~2
• Massive and old quiescent galaxies at high redshift
• The Typical Massive Quiescent Galaxy at z$\sim$3 is a Post-starburst
• The Formation of the massive galaxies in the SSA22 z=3.1 protocluster
• Rejuvenated galaxies with very old bulges at the origin of the bending of the main sequence and of the "green valley"
• The Interstellar Medium of Quiescent Galaxies and its Evolution With Time
• NIR spectroscopic observation of massive galaxies in the protocluster at z = 3.09
• The Rapid Build-up of Massive Early-type Galaxies. Supersolar Metallicity, High Velocity Dispersion and Young Age for an ETG at z=3.35
• 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
• Quiescent galaxies at $z\gtrsim 2.5$: observations vs. models
• An ancient massive quiescent galaxy found in a gas-rich z ~ 3 group
• An isolated, compact early-type galaxy with a diffuse stellar component: merger origin?
• In and out star formation in z~1.5 quiescent galaxies from rest-frame UV spectroscopy and the far-infrared
• Compact, bulge dominated structures of spectroscopically confirmed quiescent galaxies at z~3
• Star formation and quenching among the most massive galaxies at z~1.7
• SHARDS: stellar populations and star formation histories of a mass-selected sample of 0.65<z<1.1 galaxies
• The interstellar medium and feedback in the progenitors of the compact passive galaxies at z~2
• Massive quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 3$: a comparison of selection, stellar population and structural properties with simulation predictions
• Passive galaxies as tracers of cluster environments at z~2
• The redshift and star formation mode of AzTEC2: a pair of massive galaxies at $z=4.63$
• Early results from GLASS-JWST. IX: First spectroscopic confirmation of low-mass quiescent galaxies at $z>2$ with NIRISS
• Bulge formation inside quiescent lopsided stellar disks: connecting accretion, star formation and morphological transformation in a z ~ 3 galaxy group
• The structure of massive quiescent galaxies at z~3 in the CANDELS-COSMOS field
• Interrelation of the environment of Ly$\alpha$ emitters and massive galaxies at $2<z<4.5$
• The evolution of the gas fraction of quiescent galaxies modeled as a consequence of their creation rate
• Strong spectral features from asymptotic giant branch stars in distant quiescent galaxies
• Structures, stellar population properties, AGN fractions, and environments of massive compact galaxies at $1<z<2$ in 3D--{\it HST}/CANDELS
• The Ly$\alpha$, CIV, and HeII nebulae around J1000+0234: a galaxy pair at the center of a galaxy overdensity at $z=4.5$
• Star Formation and Chemical Enrichment in Protoclusters
• LARgE Survey. I. Dead Monsters: the Massive End of the Passive Galaxy Stellar Mass Function at Cosmic Noon
• Spitzer's View of the Candidate Cluster and Protocluster Catalog (CCPC)
• Morphology and structure of BzK-selected galaxies at z~2 in the CANDELS-COSMOS field
• Stellar population gradients at cosmic noon as a constraint to the evolution of passive galaxies
• Boosting the evolutionary picture of Cl 0024+17 and MS 0451-03: A case study at intermediate-redshift
• Morphology and structure of extremely red objects at $z\sim 1$ in the CANDELS-COSMOS field