On the evolution of the central density of quiescent galaxies

Abstract

We investigate the origin of the evolution of the population-averaged central stellar mass density (${\Sigma }_1$) of quiescent galaxies (QGs) by probing the relation between stellar age and ${\Sigma }_1$ at $z\sim 0$. We use the Zurich ENvironmental Study (ZENS), which is a survey of galaxy groups with a large fraction of satellite galaxies. QGs shape a narrow locus in the ${\Sigma }_1-M_{\star }$ plane, which we refer to as ${\Sigma }_1$ ridgeline. Colors of ($B-I$) and ($I-J$) are used to divide QGs into three age categories: young ($<2\mathrm{Gyr}$), intermediate ($2-4\mathrm{Gyr}$), and old ($>4\mathrm{Gyr}$). At fixed stellar mass, old QGs on the ${\Sigma }_1$ ridgeline have higher ${\Sigma }_1$ than young QGs. This shows that galaxies landing on the ${\Sigma }_1$ ridgeline at later epochs arrive with lower ${\Sigma }_1$, which drives the zeropoint of the ridgeline down with time. We compare the present-day zeropoint of the oldest population at $z=0$ with the zeropoint of the quiescent population 4 Gyr back in time, at $z=0.37$. These zeropoints are identical, showing that the intrinsic evolution of individual galaxies after they arrive on the ${\Sigma }_1$ ridgeline must be negligible, or must evolve parallel to the ridgeline during this interval. The observed evolution of the global zeropoint of 0.07 dex over the last 4 Gyr is thus largely due to the continuous addition of newly quenched galaxies with lower ${\Sigma }_1$ at later times ("progenitor bias"). While these results refer to the satellite-rich ZENS sample as a whole, our work suggests a similar age-${\Sigma }_1$ trend for central galaxies.

arXiv comment7 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJL

References in corpus (45)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Technical Summary
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• The Dust Content and Opacity of Actively Star-Forming Galaxies
• The Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• The Galaxy Evolution Explorer: A Space Ultraviolet Survey Mission
• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• Galaxy Luminosity Functions to z~1: DEEP2 vs. COMBO-17 and Implications for Red Galaxy Formation
• Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
• 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
• The Atlas3D Project - XXX. Star formation histories and stellar population scaling relations of early-type galaxies
• The Importance of Satellite Quenching for the Build-Up of the Red Sequence of Present Day Galaxies
• Mass and Environment as Drivers of Galaxy Evolution II: The quenching of satellite galaxies as the origin of environmental effects
• Galaxy groups in the 2dFGRS: the group-finding algorithm and the 2PIGG catalogue
• The Confinement of Star-Forming Galaxies into a Main Sequence through Episodes of Gas Compaction, Depletion, and Replenishment
• The stellar populations of spiral galaxies
• Evidence for Mature Bulges and an Inside-out Quenching Phase 3 Billion Years After the Big Bang
• A Link Between Star Formation Quenching and Inner Stellar Mass Density in SDSS Central Galaxies
• The Fundamenal Plane in CL0024 at z=0.4: Implications for the Evolution of the Mass-to-Light Ratio
• Evolution of Density Profiles in High-z Galaxies: Compaction and Quenching Inside-Out
• Newly-quenched galaxies as the cause for the apparent evolution in average size of the population
• The Zurich Extragalactic Bayesian Redshift Analyzer (ZEBRA) and its first application: COSMOS
• A universal structural and star-forming relation since $z\sim 3$: connecting compact star-forming and quiescent galaxies
• The Dependence of Quenching upon the Inner Structure of Galaxies at 0.5<z< 0.8 in the DEEP2/AEGIS Survey
• Structure of Disk Dominated Galaxies: II. Color Gradients and Stellar Population Models
• Superdense galaxies and the mass-size relation at low redshift
• Dense cores in galaxies out to z=2.5 in SDSS, UltraVISTA, and the five 3D-HST/CANDELS fields
• Surface density effects in quenching: cause or effect?
• The Evolution of the UV Luminosity Function from z ~ 0.75 to z ~ 2.5 using HST ERS WFC3/UVIS Observations
• The fundamental plane of EDisCS galaxies - The effect of size evolution
• Quenching of Star Formation in SDSS Groups: Centrals, Satellites, and Galactic Conformity
• Connection Between Stellar Mass Distributions Within Galaxies and Quenching Since z =2
• Avoiding progenitor bias: The structural and mass evolution of Brightest Group and Cluster Galaxies in Hierarchical models since z~1
• Minor Mergers or Progenitor Bias? The Stellar Ages of Small and Large Quenched Early-Type Galaxies
• The Zurich Environmental Study (ZENS) of Galaxies in Groups along the Cosmic Web. I. Which Environment Affects Galaxy Evolution?
• ZENS IV. Similar Morphological Changes associated with Mass- and Environment-Quenching, and the Relative importance of Bulge Growth versus the Fading of Disks
• The Zurich Environmental Study of Galaxies in Groups along the Cosmic Web. III. Galaxy Photometric Measurements and the Spatially-Resolved Color Properties of Early- and Late-Type Satellites in Diverse Environments
• Cluster and field elliptical galaxies at z~1.3. The marginal role of the environment and the relevance of the galaxy central regions
• Morphology Dependence Of Stellar Age in Quenched Galaxies at Redshift ~ 1.2: Massive Compact Galaxies Are Older Than More Extended Ones
• On the central stellar mass density and the inside-out growth of early-type galaxies
• Satellite Quenching, Galaxy Inner Density and the Halo Environment
• The Zurich Environmental Study (ZENS) of Galaxies in Groups along the Cosmic Web. II. Galaxy Structural Measurements and the Concentration of Morphologically Classified Satellites in Diverse Environments
• Dissecting the Red Sequence. IV. The Role of Truncation in the Two-Dimensional Family of Early-Type Galaxy Star Formation Histories
• The Zurich Environmental Study (ZENS) of Galaxies in Groups along the Cosmic Web. V. Properties and Frequency of Merging Satellites and Centrals in Different Environments

Cited by in corpus (29)

• A redshift-independent efficiency model: star formation and stellar masses in dark matter halos at z>4
• Morphology and star formation in IllustrisTNG: the build-up of spheroids and discs
• Fast, Slow, Early, Late: Quenching Massive Galaxies at z~0.8
• Dust attenuation, bulge formation and inside-out cessation of star-formation in Star-Forming Main Sequence galaxies at z~2
• Quenching as a Contest between Galaxy Halos and their Central Black Holes
• Stochastic modeling of star-formation histories I: the scatter of the star-forming main sequence
• Extending the evolution of the stellar mass-size relation at $z\le 2$ to low stellar mass galaxies from HFF and CANDELS
• Wet Compaction to a Blue Nugget: a Critical Phase in Galaxy Evolution
• 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
• The Sizes of Quasar Host Galaxies with the Hyper Suprime-Cam Subaru Strategic Program
• CLEAR II: Evidence for Early Formation of the Most Compact Quiescent Galaxies at High Redshift
• Color gradients along the quiescent galaxy sequence: clues to quenching and structural growth
• Two Growing Modes and the Morphology-Quiescence Relation in Galaxies
• Galaxy Sizes Since $z=2$ from the Perspective of Stellar Mass Distribution within Galaxies
• The SAMI Galaxy Survey: Satellite galaxies undergo little structural change during their quenching phase
• A New View of the Size-Mass Distribution of Galaxies: Using $r_{20}$ and $r_{80}$ instead of $r_{50}$
• Reconstructing the Assembly of Massive Galaxies. I: The Importance of the Progenitor Effect in the Observed Properties of Quiescent Galaxies at $z\approx 2$
• HST/WFC3 grism observations of $z\sim 1$ clusters: evidence for evolution in the mass-size relation of quiescent galaxies from poststarburst galaxies
• Towards an Understanding of the Massive Red Spiral Galaxy Formation
• Molecular Gas Reservoirs in Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $\mathrm{z}\sim 0.7$ Linked to Late Time Star Formation
• The evolution of compact massive quiescent and starforming galaxies derived from the $R_e-R_h$ and $M_{\mathrm{star}}-M_h$ relations
• The Structural Evolution of Isolated Galaxies at Low Redshift in the IllustrisTNG Simulation
• Implications of Increased Central Mass Surface Densities for the Quenching of Low-mass Galaxies
• Size and Spectroscopic Evolution of HectoMAP Quiescent Galaxies
• The Fundamental Plane of cluster spheroidal galaxies at z$\sim 1.3$. Evidence for mass-dependent evolution
• Stellar Mass Profiles of Quiescent Galaxies in Different Environments at $z\sim 0$
• The Differential Assembly History of the Centers and Outskirts of Main Sequence Galaxies at $z\sim 2.3$
• Evolution of Size, Mass, and Density of Galaxies Since Cosmic Dawn
• The Nun Path: The Evolution and Quenching of Satellite Galaxies