A cosmological context for compact massive galaxies

Abstract

To provide a quantitative cosmological context to ongoing observational work on the formation histories and location of compact massive galaxies, we locate and study a sample of exceptionally compact systems in the Bolshoi simulation, using the dark matter structural parameters from a real, compact massive galaxy (NGC 1277) as a basis for our working criteria. We find that over 80% of objects in this nominal compact category are substructures of more massive groups or clusters, and that the probability of a given massive substructure being this compact increases significantly with the mass of the host structure; rising to ~30% for the most massive clusters in the simulation. Tracking the main progenitors of this subsample back to z=2, we find them all to be distinct structures with scale radii and densities representative of the population as a whole at this epoch. What does characterise their histories, in addition to mostly becoming substructures, is that they have almost all experienced below-average mass accretion since z=2; a third of them barely retaining, or even losing mass during the intervening 10 Gyr.

9 pages, 9 figures

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Cited by in corpus (8)

• Timing the formation and assembly of early-type galaxies via spatially resolved stellar populations analysis
• Two new confirmed massive relic galaxies: red nuggets in the present-day Universe
• The initial mass function of a massive relic galaxy
• Red nuggets grow inside-out: evidence from gravitational lensing
• Star formation quenching imprinted on the internal structure of naked red nuggets
• Setting firmer constraints on the evolution of the most massive, central galaxies from their local abundances and ages
• Physical properties of compact star-forming galaxies at $z\sim 2-3$
• SDSS J122958.84+000138.0: A Compact, Optically red galaxy