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Title: EVIDENCE FOR (AND AGAINST) PROGENITOR BIAS IN THE SIZE GROWTH OF COMPACT RED GALAXIES

Abstract

Most massive, passive galaxies are compact at high redshifts, but similarly compact massive galaxies are rare in the local universe. The most common interpretation of this phenomenon is that massive galaxies have grown in size by a factor of about five since redshift z = 2. An alternative explanation is that recently quenched massive galaxies are larger (a {sup p}rogenitor bias{sup )}. In this paper, we explore the importance of progenitor bias by looking for systematic differences in the stellar populations of compact early-type galaxies in the DEEP2 survey as a function of size. Our analysis is based on applying the statistical technique of bootstrap resampling to constrain differences in the median ages of our samples and to begin to characterize the distribution of stellar populations in our co-added spectra. The light-weighted ages of compact early-type galaxies at redshifts 0.5 < z < 1.4 are compared to those of a control sample of larger galaxies at similar redshifts. We find that massive compact early-type galaxies selected on the basis of red color and high bulge-to-total ratio are younger than similarly selected larger galaxies, suggesting that size growth in these objects is not driven mainly by progenitor bias, and that individualmore » galaxies grow as their stellar populations age. However, compact early-type galaxies selected on the basis of image smoothness and high bulge-to-total ratio are older than a control sample of larger galaxies. Progenitor bias will play a significant role in defining the apparent size changes of early-type galaxies if they are selected on the basis of the smoothness of their light distributions.« less

Authors:
;  [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7]
  1. Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4 (Canada)
  2. Gemini Observatory, 670 North A'ohoku Place, Hilo, HI 96720 (United States)
  3. Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
  4. Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 (United States)
  5. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, 505 Rose Street, Lexington, KY 40506-0055 (United States)
  6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, 3941 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 (United States)
  7. National Research Council of Canada, 5071 West Saanich Road, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7 (Canada)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22364748
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Astrophysical Journal
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 798; Journal Issue: 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; COLOR; COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS; GALACTIC EVOLUTION; GALAXIES; IMAGES; RED SHIFT; SMOOTH MANIFOLDS; UNIVERSE; VISIBLE RADIATION

Citation Formats

Keating, Stephanie K., Abraham, Roberto G., Schiavon, Ricardo, Graves, Genevieve, Damjanov, Ivana, Yan, Renbin, Newman, Jeffrey, and Simard, Luc. EVIDENCE FOR (AND AGAINST) PROGENITOR BIAS IN THE SIZE GROWTH OF COMPACT RED GALAXIES. United States: N. p., 2015. Web. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/798/1/26.
Keating, Stephanie K., Abraham, Roberto G., Schiavon, Ricardo, Graves, Genevieve, Damjanov, Ivana, Yan, Renbin, Newman, Jeffrey, & Simard, Luc. EVIDENCE FOR (AND AGAINST) PROGENITOR BIAS IN THE SIZE GROWTH OF COMPACT RED GALAXIES. United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/798/1/26
Keating, Stephanie K., Abraham, Roberto G., Schiavon, Ricardo, Graves, Genevieve, Damjanov, Ivana, Yan, Renbin, Newman, Jeffrey, and Simard, Luc. 2015. "EVIDENCE FOR (AND AGAINST) PROGENITOR BIAS IN THE SIZE GROWTH OF COMPACT RED GALAXIES". United States. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/798/1/26.
@article{osti_22364748,
title = {EVIDENCE FOR (AND AGAINST) PROGENITOR BIAS IN THE SIZE GROWTH OF COMPACT RED GALAXIES},
author = {Keating, Stephanie K. and Abraham, Roberto G. and Schiavon, Ricardo and Graves, Genevieve and Damjanov, Ivana and Yan, Renbin and Newman, Jeffrey and Simard, Luc},
abstractNote = {Most massive, passive galaxies are compact at high redshifts, but similarly compact massive galaxies are rare in the local universe. The most common interpretation of this phenomenon is that massive galaxies have grown in size by a factor of about five since redshift z = 2. An alternative explanation is that recently quenched massive galaxies are larger (a {sup p}rogenitor bias{sup )}. In this paper, we explore the importance of progenitor bias by looking for systematic differences in the stellar populations of compact early-type galaxies in the DEEP2 survey as a function of size. Our analysis is based on applying the statistical technique of bootstrap resampling to constrain differences in the median ages of our samples and to begin to characterize the distribution of stellar populations in our co-added spectra. The light-weighted ages of compact early-type galaxies at redshifts 0.5 < z < 1.4 are compared to those of a control sample of larger galaxies at similar redshifts. We find that massive compact early-type galaxies selected on the basis of red color and high bulge-to-total ratio are younger than similarly selected larger galaxies, suggesting that size growth in these objects is not driven mainly by progenitor bias, and that individual galaxies grow as their stellar populations age. However, compact early-type galaxies selected on the basis of image smoothness and high bulge-to-total ratio are older than a control sample of larger galaxies. Progenitor bias will play a significant role in defining the apparent size changes of early-type galaxies if they are selected on the basis of the smoothness of their light distributions.},
doi = {10.1088/0004-637X/798/1/26},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22364748}, journal = {Astrophysical Journal},
issn = {0004-637X},
number = 1,
volume = 798,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2015},
month = {Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2015}
}