MOSFIRE ABSORPTION LINE SPECTROSCOPY OF z > 2 QUIESCENT GALAXIES: PROBING A PERIOD OF RAPID SIZE GROWTH
- Department of Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, MS 249-17, Pasadena, CA 91125 (United States)
- The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science, 813 Santa Barbara Street, Pasadena, CA 91101 (United States)
Using the MOSFIRE near-infrared multi-slit spectrograph on the Keck 1 Telescope, we have secured high signal-to-noise ratio absorption line spectra for six massive galaxies with redshift 2 < z < 2.5. Five of these galaxies lie on the red sequence and show signatures of passive stellar populations in their rest-frame optical spectra. By fitting broadened spectral templates we have determined stellar velocity dispersions and, with broad-band Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer photometry and imaging, stellar masses and effective radii. Using this enlarged sample of galaxies, we confirm earlier suggestions that quiescent galaxies at z > 2 have small sizes and large velocity dispersions compared to local galaxies of similar stellar mass. The dynamical masses are in very good agreement with stellar masses (log M {sub *}/M {sub dyn} = –0.02 ± 0.03), although the average stellar-to-dynamical mass ratio is larger than that found at lower redshift (–0.23 ± 0.05). By assuming evolution at fixed velocity dispersion, not only do we confirm a surprisingly rapid rate of size growth but we also consider the necessary evolutionary track on the mass-size plane and find a slope α = dlog R{sub e} /dlog M {sub *} ≳ 2 inconsistent with most numerical simulations of minor mergers. Both results suggest an additional mechanism may be required to explain the size growth of early galaxies.
- OSTI ID:
- 22365776
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 788, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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