The differences between mass- and light-derived structural parameters over time for MaNGA Elliptical galaxies

Abstract

We apply stellar population synthesis analysis to obtain spatially-resolved archaeological inferences for a large sample of "red and dead" Elliptical galaxies (Classical Ellipticals; CLEs) from the MaNGA/SDSS-IV DR15 survey. From their 2D stellar light and mass maps, we explore the differences between the radial mass and light distributions in the rest-frame bands $g,$ $r,$ and $i$ as functions of look-back time, $t_{\mathrm{lb}}$, or redshift, $z$. We characterize these differences through the ratios between the following mass- and light-derived global properties: sizes, concentrations, and effective surface densities. We find that the mass-to-light ratios of these properties change with $t_{\mathrm{lb}}$, more the more massive the galaxies are. The CLE galaxy archaeological progenitors are, on average, less compact, concentrated, and dense in light than in mass as $z$ decreases. However, at later times, when also the evolution of the progenitors becomes passive at all radii, there is an upturn in these trends and the differences between mass and light in compactness/concentration decrease towards $z\sim 0$. The trends in the ratios of mass to light sizes agree qualitatively with results from direct observations in galaxy surveys at different redshifts. We discuss the caveats and interpretations of our results, and speculate that the strong structural evolution found in some previous studies for early-type galaxies could be explained partially by photometric changes rather than by intrinsic structural changes.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 19 pages, 11 figures

References in corpus (40)

• Overview of the SDSS-IV MaNGA Survey: Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory
• 3D-HST+CANDELS: The Evolution of the Galaxy Size-Mass Distribution since $z=3$
• Evolutionary Stellar Population Synthesis with MILES. Part I: The Base Models and a New Line Index System
• Compaction and Quenching of High-z Galaxies in Cosmological Simulations: Blue and Red Nuggets
• The MaNGA Integral Field Unit Fiber Feed System for the Sloan 2.5 m Telescope
• Riding the Spiral Waves: Implications of Stellar Migration for the Properties of Galactic Disks
• The Data Reduction Pipeline for the SDSS-IV MaNGA IFU Galaxy Survey
• A Cosmological Framework for the Co-Evolution of Quasars, Supermassive Black Holes, and Elliptical Galaxies: II. Formation of Red Ellipticals
• The SDSS-IV MaNGA Sample: Design, Optimization, and Usage Considerations
• The Size Evolution of Star-forming and Quenched Galaxies in the IllustrisTNG simulation
• The dramatic size evolution of elliptical galaxies and the quasar feedback
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Spatially resolved star formation histories in galaxies as a function of galaxy mass and type
• Radial variations in the stellar initial mass function of early-type galaxies
• The evolution of star formation histories of quiescent galaxies
• Stellar populations from spectroscopy of a large sample of quiescent galaxies at z > 1: Measuring the contribution of progenitor bias to early size growth
• 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
• SDSS IV MaNGA: The global and local stellar mass assemby histories of galaxies
• Galaxy Zoo: Evidence for Diverse Star Formation Histories through the Green Valley
• Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA): the wavelength-dependent sizes and profiles of galaxies revealed by MegaMorph
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Effects of Morphology in the global and local Star Formation Main Sequences
• P-MaNGA: Full spectral fitting and stellar population maps from prototype observations
• Connection Between Stellar Mass Distributions Within Galaxies and Quenching Since z =2
• The spatially resolved star formation history of CALIFA galaxies: Cosmic time scales
• Minor Mergers or Progenitor Bias? The Stellar Ages of Small and Large Quenched Early-Type Galaxies
• Half-mass radii of quiescent and star-forming galaxies evolve slowly from 0 < z < 2.5: implications for galaxy assembly histories
• Why the Milky Way's bulge is not only a bar formed from a cold thin disk
• Mapping a stellar disk into a boxy bulge: The outside-in part of the Milky Way bulge formation
• The mass, colour, and structural evolution of today's massive galaxies since z~5
• Galaxy Sizes Since $z=2$ from the Perspective of Stellar Mass Distribution within Galaxies
• A galaxy classification grid that better recognises early-type galaxy morphology
• Radial gradients in initial mass function sensitive absorption features in the Coma brightest cluster galaxies
• Galaxy properties as revealed by MaNGA. III. Kinematic profiles and stellar population gradients in S0s
• Unbiased Differential Size Evolution and the Inside-Out Growth of Galaxies in the Deep CANDELS GOODS Fields at $1\le z\le 7$
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: Excavating the fossil record of stellar populations in spiral galaxies
• Introduction to Galaxy Formation and Evolution. From Primordial Gas to Present-Day Galaxies
• The evolution of compact massive quiescent and starforming galaxies derived from the $R_e-R_h$ and $M_{\mathrm{star}}-M_h$ relations
• Colour gradients in cluster ellipticals at z~1.4: the hidden content of the galaxy central regions
• SDSS-IV MaNGA: When is morphology imprinted on galaxies?
• Evidence for radially independent size growth of early-type galaxies in clusters
• Uncertainties in gas kinematics arising from stellar continuum modelling in integral field spectroscopy data: the case of NGC2906 observed with MUSE/VLT