SUPERDENSE MASSIVE GALAXIES IN THE ESO DISTANT CLUSTER SURVEY (EDisCS)

Journal Article · Mon Sep 20 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/2041-8205/721/1/L19· OSTI ID:21452806

Valentinuzzi, T; D'onofrio, M; Vulcani, B ^[1]; Poggianti, B M; Fritz, J; Moretti, A ^[2]; Saglia, R P ^[3]; Aragon-Salamanca, A ^[4]; Simard, L ^[5]; Sanchez-Blazquez, P; Cava, A ^[6]; Couch, W J ^[7]

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1. Astronomical Department, University of Padova (Italy)
2. INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Padova (Italy)
3. Max-Planck Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, D-85741 Garching (Germany)
4. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD (United Kingdom)
5. Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, National Research Council of Canada, Victoria, BC V9E 2E7 (Canada)
6. Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, E-38200 La Laguna, Tenerife (Spain)
7. Center for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology (Australia)

We find a significant number of massive and compact galaxies in clusters from the ESO Distant Clusters Survey (EDisCS) at 0.4 < z < 1. They have similar stellar masses, ages, sizes, and axial ratios to local z {approx} 0.04 compact galaxies in WIde field Nearby Galaxy clusters Survey (WINGS) clusters, and to z = 1.4-2 massive and passive galaxies found in the general field. If non-brightest cluster galaxies of all densities, morphologies, and spectral types are considered, the median size of EDisCS galaxies is only a factor 1.18 smaller than in WINGS. We show that for morphologically selected samples, the morphological evolution taking place in a significant fraction of galaxies during the last Gyr may introduce an apparent, spurious evolution of size with redshift, which is actually due to intrinsic differences in the selected samples. We conclude that the median mass-size relation of cluster galaxies does not evolve significantly from z {approx} 0.7 to z {approx} 0.04. In contrast, the masses and sizes of BCGs and galaxies with M {sub *}>4 x 10{sup 11} M {sub sun} have significantly increased by a factor of 2 and 4, respectively, confirming the results of a number of recent works on the subject. Our findings show that progenitor bias effects play an important role in the size-growth paradigm of massive and passive galaxies.

• OSTI ID: 21452806
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 721, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/721/1/L19; ISSN 2041-8205
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTROPHYSICS
COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
AXIAL RATIO
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
GALAXIES
GALAXY CLUSTERS
MASS
MORPHOLOGY
RED SHIFT
DIMENSIONLESS NUMBERS
EVOLUTION