Evidence for radially independent size growth of early-type galaxies in clusters

Abstract

It is not well understood whether the growth of early-type cluster galaxies proceeds inside-out, outside-in, or at the same pace at all radii. In this work we measured the galaxy size, defined by the radius including 80\% of the galaxy light, non-parametrically. We also determined a non-parametric estimate of galaxy light concentration, which measures the curvature of the surface brightness profile in the galaxy outskirts. We used an almost random sampling of a mass-limited sample formed by 128 morphologically early-type galaxies in clusters with $\log M/M_{\odot} \ga 10.7$ spanning the wide range $0.17<z<1.81$. From these data we derived the size-mass and concentration-mass relations, as well as their evolution. At 80\% light radius, early-type galaxies in clusters are about 2.7 times larger than at 50\% radius at all redshifts, and close to de Vaucouleurs profiles in the last 10 Gyr. While between $z=2$ and $z=0$ both half-light and 80\% light sizes increase by a factor of $1.7$, concentration stays constant within $2$\%, that is to say the size growth of early-type galaxies in cluster environments proceeds at the same pace at both radii. Existing physical explanations proposed in the literature are inconsistent with our results, demonstrating the need for dedicated numerical simulations to identify the physical mechanism affecting the galaxy structure.

arXiv commentA&A, in press

References in corpus (42)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• Minor mergers and the size evolution of elliptical galaxies
• Detection of quiescent galaxies in a bicolor sequence from z=0-2
• The Growth of Massive Galaxies Since z=2
• On the shape of the light profiles of early-type galaxies
• A Correlation between Galaxy Light Concentration and Supermassive Black Hole Mass
• Newly-quenched galaxies as the cause for the apparent evolution in average size of the population
• How do minor mergers promote inside-out growth of ellipticals, transforming the size, density profile and dark matter fraction?
• The Cluster-EAGLE project: global properties of simulated clusters with resolved galaxies
• Spectroscopic Confirmation of the Rich z=1.80 Galaxy Cluster JKCS 041 Using the WFC3 Grism: Environmental Trends in the Ages and Structure of Quiescent Galaxies
• Morphology and star formation in IllustrisTNG: the build-up of spheroids and discs
• Galaxy merging, the Fundamental Plane of elliptical galaxies, and the Mbh-sigma relation
• The stellar mass fraction and baryon content of galaxy clusters and groups
• JKCS041: a Coma cluster progenitor at z=1.803
• Cluster galaxies in XMMU J2235-2557: galaxy population properties in most massive environments at z~1.4
• The UVJ Selection of Quiescent and Star Forming Galaxies: Separating Early and Late-Type Galaxies and Isolating Edge-on Spirals
• Spot the difference. Impact of different selection criteria on observed properties of passive galaxies in zCOSMOS 20-k sample
• HST/WFC3 grism observations of $z\sim 1$ clusters: The cluster vs. field stellar mass-size relation and evidence for size growth of quiescent galaxies from minor mergers
• Probing the truncation of galaxy dark matter halos in high density environments from hydrodynamical N-body simulations
• Sizes, Colour gradients and Resolved Stellar Mass Distributions for the Massive Cluster Galaxies in XMMUJ2235-2557 at z = 1.39
• Deep and wide field imaging of the Coma cluster: the data
• Dim galaxies and outer halos of galaxies missed by 2MASS ? The near-infrared luminosity function and density
• The effects of the cluster environment on the galaxy mass-size relation in MACSJ J1206.2-0847
• Galaxy mass, cluster-centric distance and secular evolution: their role in the evolution of galaxies in clusters in the last 10 Gyr
• X-shooter Spectroscopy and HST Imaging of 15 Ultra Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 2$
• The buildup of stellar mass and the 3.6 micron luminosity function in clusters from z=1.25 to z=0.2
• Cluster and field elliptical galaxies at z~1.3. The marginal role of the environment and the relevance of the galaxy central regions
• A New View of the Size-Mass Distribution of Galaxies: Using $r_{20}$ and $r_{80}$ instead of $r_{50}$
• Galaxy sizes as a function of environment at intermediate redshift from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey
• The Grism Lens-Amplified Survey from Space (GLASS). IX. The dual origin of low-mass cluster galaxies as revealed by new structural analyses
• What drives the ultra-violet colours of passive galaxies?
• The enrichment history of the intracluster medium: a Bayesian approach
• Morphological evolution in situ: Disk-dominated cluster red sequences at z ~ 1.25
• HST/WFC3 grism observations of $z\sim 1$ clusters: evidence for evolution in the mass-size relation of quiescent galaxies from poststarburst galaxies
• Size growth of red-sequence early-type galaxies in clusters in the last 10 Gyr
• The stellar mass - size relation for cluster galaxies at z=1 with high angular resolution from the Gemini/GeMS multi-conjugate adaptive optics system
• Morphological evolution of cluster red sequence galaxies in the past 9 Gyr
• The cosmic epoch dependence of environmental effects on size evolution of red-sequence early-type galaxies
• The mass dependence of structure, star formation rate, and mass assembly mode at 0.5<z< 2.5
• The Fundamental Plane of cluster spheroidal galaxies at z$\sim 1.3$. Evidence for mass-dependent evolution
• Structures, stellar population properties, AGN fractions, and environments of massive compact galaxies at $1<z<2$ in 3D--{\it HST}/CANDELS
• The stellar populations of early-type galaxies -- I. Observations, line-strengths and stellar population parameters

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Galaxy Sizes Since $z=2$ from the Perspective of Stellar Mass Distribution within Galaxies
• The galaxy mass-size relation in CARLA clusters and proto-clusters at 1.4 < z < 2.8: larger cluster galaxy sizes
• Shaping physical properties of galaxy subtypes in the VIPERS survey: environment matters
• The differences between mass- and light-derived structural parameters over time for MaNGA Elliptical galaxies
• Environments of red nuggets at z~0.7 from the VIPERS survey
• An approach to robust Bayesian regression in astronomy
• Newcomers and suburbanites can drive the evolution of the size-stellar mass relation of early type galaxies in galaxy clusters