paper

The structure of massive quiescent galaxies at z~3 in the CANDELS-COSMOS field

arXiv:1306.3730 · doi:10.1088/2041-8205/771/2/L40

Abstract

In this letter, we use a two-color (J-L) vs. (V-J) selection criteria to search massive, quiescent galaxy candidates at 2.5<z<4.0 in the CANDELS-COSMOS field. We construct a H-selected catalogue and complement it with public auxiliary data. We finally obtain 19 passive VJL-selected (hereafter pVJL) galaxies as the possible massive quiescent galaxy candidates at z~3 by several constrains. We find the sizes of our pVJL galaxies are on average 3-4 times smaller than those of local ETGs with analogous stellar mass. The compact size of these z~3 galaxies can be modelled by assuming their formation at z ~ 4-6 according to the dissipative collapse of baryons. Up to z<4, the mass-normalized size evolution can be described by . Low Sersic index and axis ratio, with median values n~1.5 and b/a~0.65 respectively, indicate most of pVJL galaxies are disk-dominated. Despite large uncertainty, the inner region of the median mass profile of our pVJL galaxies is similar to those of quiescent galaxies (QGs) at 0.5<z<2.5 and local Early-type galaxies (ETGs). It indicates local massive ETGs have been formed according to an inside-out scenario: the compact galaxies at high redshift make up the cores of local massive ETGs and then build up the outskirts according to dissipationless minor mergers.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

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