WHAT TURNS GALAXIES OFF? THE DIFFERENT MORPHOLOGIES OF STAR-FORMING AND QUIESCENT GALAXIES SINCE z {approx} 2 FROM CANDELS

Journal Article · Tue Jul 10 04:00:00 EDT 2012 · Astrophysical Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/753/2/167· OSTI ID:22039353

Bell, Eric F; Herrington, Jessica ^[1]; Van der Wel, Arjen ^[2]; Papovich, Casey ^[3]; Kocevski, Dale; Faber, S M; Cheung, Edmond; Koo, David C; McGrath, Elizabeth J ^[4]; Lotz, Jennifer; Ferguson, Harry; Koekemoer, Anton; Grogin, Norman ^[5]; McIntosh, Daniel H ^[6]; Kartaltepe, Jeyhan ^[7]; Wuyts, Stijn ^[8]; Conselice, Christopher J ^[9]; Dekel, Avishai ^[10]; Dunlop, James S ^[11]; Giavalisco, Mauro ^[12] ; others, and

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1. Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, 500 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 (United States)
2. Max-Planck Institut fuer Astronomie, Koenigstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg (Germany)
3. George P. and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Institute for Fundamental Physics and Astronomy, and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Texas A and M University, College Station, TX 77843-4242 (United States)
4. UCO/Lick Observatory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 (United States)
5. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
6. Department of Physics, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, MO 64110 (United States)
7. NOAO-Tucson, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719 (United States)
8. Max-Planck-Institut fuer Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse, D-85748 Garching (Germany)
9. University of Nottingham, School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham NG7 2RD (United Kingdom)
10. Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904 (Israel)
11. Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ (United Kingdom)
12. Department of Astronomy, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 (United States)

We use HST/WFC3 imaging from the CANDELS Multi-Cycle Treasury Survey, in conjunction with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, to explore the evolution of galactic structure for galaxies with stellar masses >3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 10} M{sub Sun} from z = 2.2 to the present epoch, a time span of 10 Gyr. We explore the relationship between rest-frame optical color, stellar mass, star formation activity, and galaxy structure. We confirm the dramatic increase from z = 2.2 to the present day in the number density of non-star-forming galaxies above 3 Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 10} M{sub Sun} reported by others. We further find that the vast majority of these quiescent systems have concentrated light profiles, as parameterized by the Sersic index, and the population of concentrated galaxies grows similarly rapidly. We examine the joint distribution of star formation activity, Sersic index, stellar mass, inferred velocity dispersion, and stellar surface density. Quiescence correlates poorly with stellar mass at all z < 2.2. Quiescence correlates well with Sersic index at all redshifts. Quiescence correlates well with 'velocity dispersion' and stellar surface density at z > 1.3, and somewhat less well at lower redshifts. Yet, there is significant scatter between quiescence and galaxy structure: while the vast majority of quiescent galaxies have prominent bulges, many of them have significant disks, and a number of bulge-dominated galaxies have significant star formation. Noting the rarity of quiescent galaxies without prominent bulges, we argue that a prominent bulge (and perhaps, by association, a supermassive black hole) is an important condition for quenching star formation on galactic scales over the last 10 Gyr, in qualitative agreement with the active galactic nucleus feedback paradigm.

• OSTI ID: 22039353
• Journal Information: Astrophysical Journal, Journal Name: Astrophysical Journal Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 753; ISSN ASJOAB; ISSN 0004-637X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
ASTRONOMY
ASTROPHYSICS
BLACK HOLES
COLOR
DENSITY
GALAXIES
GALAXY NUCLEI
INDEXES
MASS
MORPHOLOGY
RED SHIFT
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
VELOCITY
VISIBLE RADIATION