Rachel Bezanson

THE GROWTH OF MASSIVE GALAXIES SINCE z = 2

We study the growth of massive galaxies from z = 2 to the present using data from the NOAO/Yale NEWFIRM Medium Band Survey. The sample is selected at a constant number density of n = 2 ? 10?4?Mpc?3, so that galaxies at different epochs can be compared in a meaningful way. We show that the stellar mass of galaxies at this number density has increased by a factor of 2 since z = 2, following the relation log Mn (z) = 11.45 ? 0.15z. In order to determine at what physical radii this mass growth occurred, we construct very deep stacked rest-frame R-band images of galaxies with masses near Mn (z), at redshifts z = 0.6, 1.1, 1.6, and 2.0. These image stacks of typically 70-80 galaxies enable us to characterize the stellar distribution to surface brightness limits of ~28.5 mag?arcsec?2. We find that massive galaxies gradually built up their outer regions over the past 10 Gyr. The mass within a radius of r = 5?kpc is nearly constant with redshift, whereas the mass at 5 kpc < r < 75?kpc has increased by a factor of ~4 since z = 2. Parameterizing the surface brightness profiles, we find that the effective radius and Sersic n parameter evolve as re (1 + z)?1.3 and n (1 + z)?1.0, respectively. The data demonstrate that massive galaxies have grown mostly inside-out, assembling their extended stellar halos around compact, dense cores with possibly exponential radial density distributions. Comparing the observed mass evolution to the average star formation rates of the galaxies we find that the growth is likely dominated by mergers, as in situ star formation can only account for ~20% of the mass buildup from z = 2 to z = 0. A direct consequence of these results is that massive galaxies do not evolve in a self-similar way: their structural profiles change as a function of redshift, complicating analyses which (often implicitly) assume self-similarity. The main uncertainties in this study are possible redshift-dependent systematic errors in the total stellar masses and the conversion from light-weighted to mass-weighted radial profiles.

THE RELATION BETWEEN COMPACT, QUIESCENT HIGH-REDSHIFT GALAXIES AND MASSIVE NEARBY ELLIPTICAL GALAXIES: EVIDENCE FOR HIERARCHICAL, INSIDE-OUT GROWTH

Recent studies have shown that massive quiescent galaxies at high redshift are much more compact than present-day galaxies of the same mass. Here we compare the radial stellar density profiles and the number density of a sample of massive galaxies at z ~ 2.3 to nearby massive elliptical galaxies. We confirm that the average stellar densities of the z ~ 2.3 galaxies within the effective radius, ρ(<re ), are two orders of magnitude higher than those of local elliptical galaxies of the same stellar mass. However, we also find that the densities measured within a constant physical radius of 1 kpc, ρ(<1 kpc), are higher by a factor of 2-3 only. This suggests that inside-out growth scenarios are plausible, in which the compact high-redshift galaxies make up the centers of normal nearby ellipticals. The compact galaxies are common at high redshift, which enables us to further constrain their evolution by requiring that the number density of their descendants does not exceed constraints imposed by the z = 0 galaxy mass function. We infer that size growth must be efficient, with (r 1+2/r 1) ~ (M 1+2/M 1)2. A simple model where compact galaxies with masses ~1011 M ☉ primarily grow through minor mergers produces descendants with the approximate sizes, stellar densities, and number density of elliptical galaxies with masses 2-3 × 1011 M ☉ in the local universe. We note that this model also predicts evolution in the M BH – σ relation, such that the progenitors of elliptical galaxies have lower black hole masses at fixed velocity dispersion. The main observational uncertainty is the conversion from light to mass; measurements of kinematics are needed to calibrate the masses and stellar densities of the high-redshift galaxies.

3D-HST WFC3-selected Photometric Catalogs in the Five CANDELS/3D-HST Fields: Photometry, Photometric Redshifts and Stellar Masses

The 3D-HST and CANDELS programs have provided WFC3 and ACS spectroscopy and photometry over ≈900 arcmin2 in five fields: AEGIS, COSMOS, GOODS-North, GOODS-South, and the UKIDSS UDS field. All these fields have a wealth of publicly available imaging data sets in addition to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, which makes it possible to construct the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of objects over a wide wavelength range. In this paper we describe a photometric analysis of the CANDELS and 3D-HST HST imaging and the ancillary imaging data at wavelengths 0.3-8 μm. Objects were selected in the WFC3 near-IR bands, and their SEDs were determined by carefully taking the effects of the point-spread function in each observation into account. A total of 147 distinct imaging data sets were used in the analysis. The photometry is made available in the form of six catalogs: one for each field, as well as a master catalog containing all objects in the entire survey. We also provide derived data products: photometric redshifts, determined with the EAZY code, and stellar population parameters determined with the FAST code. We make all the imaging data that were used in the analysis available, including our reductions of the WFC3 imaging in all five fields. 3D-HST is a spectroscopic survey with the WFC3 and ACS grisms, and the photometric catalogs presented here constitute a necessary first step in the analysis of these grism data. All the data presented in this paper are available through the 3D-HST Web site (http://3dhst.research.yale.edu).

The NEWFIRM Medium-band Survey: Photometric Catalogs, Redshifts and the Bimodal Color Distribution of Galaxies out to z~3

We present deep near-IR (NIR) medium-bandwidth photometry over the wavelength range 1-1.8 μm in the All-wavelength Extended Groth strip International Survey (AEGIS) and Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS) fields. The observations were carried out using the NOAO Extremely Wide-Field Infrared Imager (NEWFIRM) on the Mayall 4 m Telescope on Kitt Peak as part of the NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey (NMBS), an NOAO survey program. In this paper, we describe the full details of the observations, data reduction, and photometry for the survey. We also present a public K-selected photometric catalog, along with accurate photometric redshifts. The redshifts are computed with 37 (20) filters in the COSMOS (AEGIS) fields, combining the NIR medium-bandwidth data with existing UV (Galaxy Evolution Explorer), visible and NIR (Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and Subaru Telescope), and mid-IR (Spitzer/IRAC) imaging. We find excellent agreement with publicly available spectroscopic redshifts, with σ z /(1 + z) ~ 1%-2% for ~4000 galaxies at z = 0-3. The NMBS catalogs contain ~13,000 galaxies at z > 1.5 with accurate photometric redshifts and rest-frame colors. Due to the increased spectral resolution obtained with the five NIR medium-band filters, the median 68% confidence intervals of the photometric redshifts of both quiescent and star-forming galaxies are a factor of about two times smaller when comparing catalogs with medium-band NIR photometry to NIR broadband photometry. We show evidence for a clear bimodal color distribution between quiescent and star-forming galaxies that persists to z ~ 3, a higher redshift than has been probed so far.

STELLAR KINEMATICS OF z ∼ 2 GALAXIES AND THE INSIDE-OUT GROWTH OF QUIESCENT GALAXIES* , **

Using stellar kinematics measurements, we investigate the growth of massive, quiescent galaxies from z ~{} 2 to today. We present X-Shooter spectra from the UV to NIR and dynamical mass measurements of five quiescent massive ({gt}10

A Large Population of Massive Compact Post-starburst Galaxies at z > 1: Implications for the Size Evolution and Quenching Mechanism of Quiescent Galaxies

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THE 3D-HST SURVEY: HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE WFC3/G141 GRISM SPECTRA, REDSHIFTS, AND EMISSION LINE MEASUREMENTS FOR ∼100,000 GALAXIES

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THE STELLAR VELOCITY DISPERSION OF A COMPACT MASSIVE GALAXY AT z = 1.80 USING X-SHOOTER: CONFIRMATION OF THE EVOLUTION IN THE MASS-SIZE AND MASS-DISPERSION RELATIONS* , **

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FORMING COMPACT MASSIVE GALAXIES

) galaxies at z ~{} 2. This triples the sample of z {gt} 1.5 galaxies with well-constrained ({

First results from the 3D-HST survey: The striking diversity of massive galaxies at z > 1

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