The Morphology-Density relationship in 1<z<2 clusters

Abstract

The morphology-density relationship states that dense cosmic environments such as galaxy clusters have an overabundance of quiescent elliptical galaxies, but it is unclear at which redshift this relationship is first established. We study the morphology of 4 clusters with $1.2<z<1.8$ using HST imaging and the morphology computation code statmorph. By comparing median morphology of cluster galaxies to CANDELS field galaxies using Monte Carlo analysis, we find that 2 out of 4 clusters (at z=1.19 and z=1.75) have an established morphology-density relationship with more than $3\sigma$ significance. $\sim$50% of galaxies in these clusters are bulge-dominated compared to $\sim$30% in the field, and they are significantly more compact. This result is more significant for low-mass galaxies with $\log M/M_{\odot }⪅10.5$, showing that low-mass galaxies are affected the most in clusters. We also find an intriguing system of two z $\approx$ 1.45 clusters at a unusually small separation 2D separation of $3^{\prime }$ and 3D separation of $\approx 73$ Mpc that exhibit no morphology-density relationship but have enhanced merger signatures. We conclude that the environmental mechanism responsible for the morphology-density relationship is 1) already active as early as z=1.75, 2) forms compact, bulge-dominated galaxies and 3) affects primarily low-mass galaxies. However, there is a significant degree of intracluster variance that may depend on the larger cosmological environment in which the cluster is embedded.

27 pages, 14 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ

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