Compact, bulge dominated structures of spectroscopically confirmed quiescent galaxies at z~3

Abstract

We study structural properties of spectroscopically confirmed massive quiescent galaxies at $z\approx 3$ with one of the first sizeable samples of such sources, made of ten $10.8<\log (M_{\star }/M_{\odot })<11.3$ galaxies at $2.4<z<3.2$ in the COSMOS field whose redshifts and quiescence are confirmed by HST grism spectroscopy. Although affected by a weak bias toward younger stellar populations, this sample is deemed to be largely representative of the majority of the most massive and thus intrinsically rarest quiescent sources at this cosmic time. We rely on targeted HST/WFC3 observations and fit Sérsic profiles to the galaxy surface brightness distributions at $\approx 4000$ angstrom restframe. We find typically high Sérsic indices and axis ratios (medians $\approx 4.5$ and $0.73$, respectively) suggesting that, at odds with some previous results, the first massive quiescent galaxies may largely be already bulge-dominated systems. We measure compact galaxy sizes with an average of $\approx 1.4$kpc at $\log (M_{\star }/M_{\odot })\approx 11.2$, in good agreement with the extrapolation at the highest masses of previous determinations of the stellar mass - size relation of quiescent galaxies, and of its redshift evolution, from photometrically selected samples at lower and similar redshifts. This work confirms the existence of a population of compact, bulge dominated, massive, quiescent sources at $z\approx 3$, providing one of the first statistical estimates of their structural properties, and further constraining the early formation and evolution of the first quiescent galaxies.

arXiv comment19 pages, 10 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (183)

• Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003
• Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function
• The physical properties of star forming galaxies in the low redshift universe
• Detailed Structural Decomposition of Galaxy Images
• The Galaxy Evolution Explorer: A Space Ultraviolet Survey Mission
• How Do Galaxies Get Their Gas?
• CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey
• CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey - The Hubble Space Telescope Observations, Imaging Data Products and Mosaics
• Mass and environment as drivers of galaxy evolution in SDSS and zCOSMOS and the origin of the Schechter function
• A Unified, Merger-Driven Model for the Origin of Starbursts, Quasars, the Cosmic X-Ray Background, Supermassive Black Holes and Galaxy Spheroids
• EAZY: A Fast, Public Photometric Redshift Code
• Detailed Decomposition of Galaxy Images. II. Beyond Axisymmetric Models
• Galaxy Bimodality due to Cold Flows and Shock Heating
• Cold streams in early massive hot haloes as the main mode of galaxy formation
• The Dependence of Star Formation History and Internal Structure on Stellar Mass for 10^5 Low-Redshift Galaxies
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• The size distribution of galaxies in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• SparsePak: A Formatted Fiber Field Unit for The WIYN Telescope Bench Spectrograph. I. Design, Construction, and Calibration
• The COSMOS2015 Catalog: Exploring the 1<z<6 Universe with half a million galaxies
• Virial shocks in galactic haloes?
• Mass assembly in quiescent and star-forming galaxies since z=4 from UltraVISTA
• Formation of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift: Cold Streams, Clumpy Disks and Compact Spheroids
• An ultra-deep near-infrared spectrum of a compact quiescent galaxy at z=2.2
• 3D-HST WFC3-selected Photometric Catalogs in the Five CANDELS/3D-HST Fields: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Masses
• The Evolution of the Stellar Mass Functions of Star-Forming and Quiescent Galaxies to z = 4 from the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Survey
• Minor mergers and the size evolution of elliptical galaxies
• Modeling the Panchromatic Spectral Energy Distributions of Galaxies
• Detection of quiescent galaxies in a bicolor sequence from z=0-2
• Passively Evolving Early-type Galaxies at 1.4<z<2.5 in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
• The Herschel view of the dominant mode of galaxy growth from z=4 to the present day
• The Dust Opacity of Star-Forming Galaxies
• UltraVISTA: a new ultra-deep near-infrared survey in COSMOS
• Morphological quenching of star formation: making early-type galaxies red
• The Two Phases of Galaxy Formation
• The First Release COSMOS Optical and Near-IR Data and Catalog
• The ATLAS3D project - III. A census of the stellar angular momentum within the effective radius of early-type galaxies: unveiling the distribution of Fast and Slow Rotators
• The COSMOS Survey: Hubble Space Telescope / Advanced Camera for Surveys (HST/ACS) Observations and Data Processing
• Confirmation of the remarkable compactness of massive quiescent galaxies at z~2.3: early-type galaxies did not form in a simple monolithic collapse
• Submillimeter Galaxies at z~2: Evidence for Major Mergers & Constraints on Lifetimes, IMF and CO-H2 Conversion Factor
• The 3D-HST Survey: Hubble Space Telescope WFC3/G141 grism spectra, redshifts, and emission line measurements for $\sim 100,000$ galaxies
• Galaxy Stellar Mass Assembly between 0.2<z<2 from the S-COSMOS survey
• A new photometric technique for the joint selection of star-forming and passive galaxies at 1.4<z<2.5
• The Spitzer Legacy Survey of the HST-ACS 2 sq. deg. COSMOS Field: survey strategy and first analysis
• Compaction and Quenching of High-z Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations: Blue and Red Nuggets
• The Relation Between Compact, Quiescent High Redshift Galaxies and Massive Nearby Elliptical Galaxies: Evidence for Hierarchical, Inside-Out Growth
• Structure and Kinematics of Early-Type Galaxies from Integral-Field Spectroscopy
• Wet Disc Contraction to Galactic Blue Nuggets and Quenching to Red Nuggets
• Structure and star formation in galaxies out to z=3: evidence for surface density dependent evolution and upsizing
• Size evolution of the most massive galaxies at 1.7<z<3 from GOODS NICMOS survey imaging
• Old Galaxies in the Young Universe
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: II. Formation of Red Ellipticals
• A Public Ks-selected Catalog in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA Field: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Population Parameters
• The cosmological size and velocity dispersion evolution of massive early-type galaxies
• Evidence for TP-AGB stars in high redshift galaxies, and their effect on deriving stellar population parameters
• Radiative feedback from massive black holes in elliptical galaxies. AGN flaring and central starburst fueled by recycled gas
• IRAC Mid-Infrared Imaging of the Hubble Deep Field South: Star Formation Histories and Stellar Masses of Red Galaxies at z>2
• Smooth(er) Stellar Mass Maps in CANDELS: Constraints on the Longevity of Clumps in High-redshift Star-forming Galaxies
• The Gemini Deep Deep Survey: III. The abundance of massive galaxies 3-6 billion years after the Big Bang
• The number density and mass density of star-forming and quiescent galaxies at 0.4 < z < 2.2
• The Chandra COSMOS Legacy survey: optical/IR identifications
• Bulge Growth and Quenching since z = 2.5 in CANDELS/3D-HST
• An ALMA Survey of Submillimeter Galaxies in the Extended Chandra Deep Field South: The Redshift Distribution and Evolution of Submillimeter Galaxies
• Properties of Early-Type, Dry Galaxy Mergers and the Origin of Massive Elliptical Galaxies
• The Canada-UK Deep Sub-Millimeter Survey II: First identifications, redshifts and implications for galaxy evolution
• GMASS Ultradeep Spectroscopy of Galaxies at 1.4<z<2. II. Superdense passive galaxies: how did they form and evolve ?
• Dry Mergers in GEMS: The Dynamical Evolution of Massive Early-Type Galaxies
• Evidence for Mature Bulges and an Inside-out Quenching Phase 3 Billion Years After the Big Bang
• Forming Compact Massive Galaxies
• What turns galaxies off? The different morphologies of star-forming and quiescent galaxies since z~2 from CANDELS
• Sub-millimeter galaxies as progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies
• Toy Models for Galaxy Formation versus Simulations
• A JavaScript Passive Evolution Calculator
• 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
• A universal structural and star-forming relation since $z\sim 3$: connecting compact star-forming and quiescent galaxies
• The Formation of Massive, Compact Galaxies at z=2 in the Illustris Simulation
• A massive, quiescent galaxy at redshift of z=3.717
• A simple model for the size-evolution of elliptical galaxies
• Deep Spitzer 24mic COSMOS imaging -- I. The evolution of luminous dusty galaxies - Confronting the models
• HST and Spitzer imaging of red and blue galaxies at z~2.5: A correlation between size and star formation activity from compact quiescent galaxies to extended star forming galaxies
• The COSMOS-WIRCam near-infrared imaging survey: I: BzK selected passive and star forming galaxy candidates at z>1.4
• Extremely compact massive galaxies at z~1.4
• The Redshift Evolution of Wet, Dry, and Mixed Galaxy Mergers from Close Galaxy Pairs in the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey
• Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3<z<4 quiescent galaxies
• The Majority of Compact Massive Galaxies at z~2 are Disk Dominated
• A Large Population of Massive Compact Post-Starburst Galaxies at z>1: Implications for the Size Evolution and Quenching Mechanism of Quiescent Galaxies
• MOSFIRE Spectroscopy of Quiescent Galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5. II - Star Formation Histories and Galaxy Quenching
• COSMOS-DASH: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Relation Since z~3 from new Wide Field WFC3 Imaging Combined with CANDELS/3DHST
• Spectroscopic Identification of Massive Galaxies at z~2.3 with Strongly Suppressed Star Formation
• Spatially Resolved Millimeter Interferometry of SMMJ02399-0136: a Very Massive Galaxy at z=2.8
• Quiescent galaxies 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang and their progenitors
• HST/WFC3 Confirmation of the Inside-Out Growth of Massive Galaxies at 0<z<2 and Identification of their Star Forming Progenitors at z~3
• Gravitational Quenching in Massive Galaxies and Clusters by Clumpy Accretion
• The Rise and Fall of Passive Disk Galaxies: Morphological Evolution Along the Red Sequence Revealed by COSMOS
• The sizes, masses and specific star-formation rates of massive galaxies at 1.3<z<1.5: strong evidence in favour of evolution via minor mergers
• "Super-deblended" Dust Emission in Galaxies: II. Far-IR to (sub)millimeter photometry and high redshift galaxy candidates in the full COSMOS field
• CANDELS+3D-HST: compact SFGs at z~2-3, the progenitors of the first quiescent galaxies
• Dissecting the size evolution of elliptical galaxies since z~1: puffing up vs minor merging scenarios
• Superdense galaxies and the mass-size relation at low redshift
• Pixel-based correction for Charge Transfer Inefficiency in the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys
• On the Size and Comoving Mass Density Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies
• Deep near-infrared spectroscopy of passively evolving galaxies at z>1.4
• Stellar populations from spectroscopy of a large sample of quiescent galaxies at z > 1: Measuring the contribution of progenitor bias to early size growth
• High-Redshift Star-Forming Galaxies: Angular Momentum and Baryon Fraction, Turbulent Pressure Effects and the Origin of Turbulence
• Half-mass radii for ~7,000 galaxies at 1.0 < z < 2.5: most of the evolution in the mass-size relation is due to color gradients
• Dense cores in galaxies out to z=2.5 in SDSS, UltraVISTA, and the five 3D-HST/CANDELS fields
• Star formation quenching in massive galaxies
• Velocity Dispersions and Dynamical Masses for a Large Sample of Quiescent Galaxies at z > 1: Improved Measures of the Growth in Mass and Size
• Structural Properties of Central Galaxies in Groups and Clusters
• The SCUBA-2 Cosmology Legacy Survey: Multi-wavelength Properties of ALMA-identified Submillimeter Galaxies in UKIDSS-UDS
• Predicting Quiescence: The Dependence of Specific Star Formation Rate on Galaxy Size and Central Density at 0.5<z<2.5
• Surface density effects in quenching: cause or effect?
• Constraining The Assembly Of Normal And Compact Passively Evolving Galaxies From Redshift z=3 To The Present With CANDELS
• Stellar mass estimates in early-type galaxies: procedures, uncertainties and models dependence
• Quantitative Morphology of Galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field
• The Argo Simulation: I. Quenching of Massive Galaxies at High Redshift as a Result of Cosmological Starvation
• The Most Massive Galaxies at 3.0<z<4.0 in the NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey: Properties and Improved Constraints on the Stellar Mass Function
• Forming disk galaxies in wet major mergers. I. Three fiducial examples
• Adding Environmental Gas Physics to the Semi-Analytic Method for Galaxy Formation: Gravitational Heating
• A massive, dead disk galaxy in the early Universe
• AEGIS: Enhancement of Dust-enshrouded Star Formation in Close Galaxy Pairs and Merging Galaxies up to z ~ 1
• The evolution of the number density of large disk galaxies in COSMOS
• Chemical evolution during gas-rich galaxy interactions
• The Massive Ancient Galaxies At $z>3$ NEar-infrared (MAGAZ3NE) Survey: Confirmation of Extremely Rapid Star-Formation and Quenching Timescales for Massive Galaxies in the Early Universe
• Fast and slow paths to quiescence: ages and sizes of 400 quiescent galaxies from the LEGA-C survey
• Fast evolving size of early-type galaxies at z>2 and the role of dissipationless (dry) merging
• Discovery of four apparently cold dusty galaxies at z=3.62-5.85 in the COSMOS field: direct evidence of CMB impact on high-redshift galaxy observables
• An Extremely Massive Quiescent Galaxy at $z=3.493$: Evidence of Insufficiently Rapid Quenching Mechanisms in Theoretical Models
• MOSFIRE Spectroscopy of Quiescent Galaxies at 1.5 < z < 2.5. I - Evolution of Structural and Dynamical Properties
• The Progenitors of Local Ultra-massive Galaxies Across Cosmic Time: from Dusty Star-bursting to Quiescent Stellar Populations
• Major Merging: The Way to Make a Massive, Passive Galaxy
• Structural Evolution of Early-type Galaxies to z=2.5 in CANDELS
• Massive post-starburst galaxies at z > 1 are compact proto-spheroids
• The evolution of early and late type galaxies in the COSMOS up to z~1.2
• Resolving Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 2$: II. Direct Measures of Rotational Support
• The population of early-type galaxies at 1<z<2 - New clues on their formation and evolution
• Keck-I MOSFIRE spectroscopy of compact star-forming galaxies at z$\gtrsim$2: High velocity dispersions in progenitors of compact quiescent galaxies
• Stellar Velocity Dispersion of a Massive Quenching Galaxy at z=4.01
• A Massive Galaxy in its Core Formation Phase Three Billion Years After the Big Bang
• The sizes of massive quiescent and star forming galaxies at z~4 with ZFOURGE and CANDELS
• On the importance of using appropriate spectral models to derive physical properties of galaxies at 0.7<z<2.8
• Spatially Resolved Stellar Kinematics from LEGA-C: Increased Rotational Support in z~0.8 Quiescent Galaxies
• Morphological evolution of galaxies from ultradeep HST WFC3 imaging: the Hubble sequence at z~2
• Discovery of a Strongly Lensed Massive Quiescent Galaxy at z=2.636: Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy and Indications of Rotation
• Half-mass radii of quiescent and star-forming galaxies evolve slowly from 0 < z < 2.5: implications for galaxy assembly histories
• The Age Spread of Quiescent Galaxies with the NEWFIRM Medium-band Survey: Identification of the Oldest Galaxies out to z~2
• Disk Growth and Quenching
• The structure of post-starburst galaxies at $0.5<z<2$: evidence for two distinct quenching routes at different epochs
• Morphologies and Color Gradients of Luminous Evolved Galaxies at z~1.5
• Chasing passive galaxies in the early Universe: a critical analysis in CANDELS GOODS-South
• ALMA reveals a warm and compact starburst around a heavily obscured supermassive black hole at z=4.75
• The Relation between Galaxy Structure and Spectral Type: Implications for the Buildup of the Quiescent Galaxy Population at 0.5<z<2.0
• Physical properties and evolution of (Sub-)millimeter selected galaxies in the galaxy formation simulation Shark
• The early early type: discovery of a passive galaxy at z=3
• The WFC3 Galactic Bulge Treasury Program: Relative Ages of Bulge Stars of High and Low Metallicity
• What Are the Progenitors of Compact, Massive, Quiescent Galaxies at z=2.3? The Population of Massive Galaxies at z>3 from NMBS and CANDELS
• A constant limiting mass scale for flat early-type galaxies from z=1 to z=0: density evolves but shapes do not
• Spectroscopic Confirmation of an Ultra Massive and Compact Galaxy at z=3.35: A Detailed Look at an Early Progenitor of Local Most Massive Ellipticals
• A spectroscopic sample of massive, evolved z~2 galaxies: Implications for the evolution of the mass-size relation
• The Typical Massive Quiescent Galaxy at z$\sim$3 is a Post-starburst
• Morphologies of Two Massive Old Galaxies at z ~ 2.5
• Velocity Dispersion, Size, Sérsic Index and $D_{n}4000$: The Scaling of Stellar Mass with Dynamical Mass for Quiescent Galaxies
• Evolution of Quiescent and Star-Forming Galaxies Since z~1.5 as a Function of Their Velocity Dispersions
• The colors and sizes of recently quenched galaxies: a result of compact starburst before quenching
• A spectroscopic follow-up program of very massive galaxies at 3<z<4: confirmation of spectroscopic redshifts, and a high fraction of powerful AGN
• How Massive are Massive Compact Galaxies?
• X-shooter Spectroscopy and HST Imaging of 15 Ultra Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 2$
• A Disk Galaxy of Old Stars at z ~ 2.5
• Morphology Dependence Of Stellar Age in Quenched Galaxies at Redshift ~ 1.2: Massive Compact Galaxies Are Older Than More Extended Ones
• The Effect of Many Minor Mergers on the Size Growth of Compact Quiescent Galaxies
• The rest-frame optical sizes of massive galaxies with suppressed star formation at $z\sim 4$
• In and out star formation in z~1.5 quiescent galaxies from rest-frame UV spectroscopy and the far-infrared
• The interstellar medium and feedback in the progenitors of the compact passive galaxies at z~2
• Passive galaxies as tracers of cluster environments at z~2
• Compact Star-Forming Galaxies as Old Starbursts Becoming Quiescent
• Stellar Velocity Dispersion for a Strongly-Lensed, Intermediate-Mass Quiescent Galaxy at z=2.8
• Witnessing the birth of the red sequence: the physical scale and morphology of dust emission in hyper-luminous starbursts in the early Universe
• High Redshift Massive Quiescent Galaxies are as Flat as Star Forming Galaxies: The Flattening of Galaxies and the Correlation with Structural Properties in CANDELS/3D-HST
• Compact Quiescent Galaxies at Intermediate Redshifts
• A comparison of the most massive quiescent galaxies from $z\sim 3$ to the present: slow evolution in size, and spheroid-dominated
• HST F160W Imaging of Very Massive Galaxies at $1.5<z<3.0$: Diversity of Structures and the Effect of Close Pairs on Number Density Estimates
• Bimodal morphologies of massive galaxies at the core of a protocluster at z=3.09 and the strong size growth of a brightest cluster galaxy

Cited by in corpus (17)

• An Atlas of Color-selected Quiescent Galaxies at $z>3$ in Public $JWST$ Fields
• Dynamical properties of z $\sim 4.5$ dusty star-forming galaxies and their connection with local early type galaxies
• The ALMA-ALPAKA survey I: high-resolution CO and [CI] kinematics of star-forming galaxies at z = 0.5-3.5
• COSMOS2020: Exploring the dawn of quenching for massive galaxies at 3 < z < 5 with a new colour selection method
• HST grism spectroscopy of z~3 massive quiescent galaxies: Approaching the metamorphosis
• MAGAZ3NE: High Stellar Velocity Dispersions for Ultra-Massive Quiescent Galaxies at $z\gtrsim 3$
• An ancient massive quiescent galaxy found in a gas-rich z ~ 3 group
• Massive quiescent galaxies at $z\sim 3$: a comparison of selection, stellar population and structural properties with simulation predictions
• The galaxy mass-size relation in CARLA clusters and proto-clusters at 1.4 < z < 2.8: larger cluster galaxy sizes
• Bulge formation inside quiescent lopsided stellar disks: connecting accretion, star formation and morphological transformation in a z ~ 3 galaxy group
• The evolution of compact massive quiescent and starforming galaxies derived from the $R_e-R_h$ and $M_{\mathrm{star}}-M_h$ relations
• The [CII] 158 $\mu$m emission line as a gas mass tracer in high redshift quiescent galaxies
• Dynamical modelling and origin of gas turbulence in z $\sim$ 4.5 galaxies
• JADES: Rest-frame UV-to-NIR Size Evolution of Massive Quiescent Galaxies from Redshift z=5 to z=0.5
• Galaxy populations in the most distant SPT-SZ clusters -- II. Galaxy structural properties in massive clusters at 1.4<z<1.7
• PRIMER: JWST/MIRI reveals the evolution of star-forming structures in galaxies at z<2.5
• A massive quiescent galaxy confirmed in a protocluster at z=3.09