The Morphology of Passively Evolving Galaxies at z ~ 2 from HST/WFC3 Deep Imaging in the Hubble Ultradeep Field Export

@article{citeulike:6087671, abstract = {We discuss near--IR images of six passive galaxies (SSFR\<10^{-2} Gyr^{-1}) at redshift 1.3\<z\<2.4 with stellar mass M \~{} 10^{11} M\_sun, selected from the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), obtained with WFC3/IR and the Hubble Space Telescope. These WFC3 images provide the deepest and highest angular resolution view of the optical rest--frame morphology of such systems to date. We find that the light profile of these galaxies is generally regular and well described by a Sersic model with index typical of today's spheroids. We confirm the existence of compact and massive early--type galaxies at z \~{} 2: four out of six galaxies have r\_e \~{} 1 kpc or less. The WFC3 images achieve limiting surface brightness\~{}26.5 mag arcsec^{-2} in the F160W bandpass; yet there is no evidence of a faint halo in the five compact galaxies of our sample, nor is a halo observed in their stacked image. We also find very weak ``morphological k--correction'' in the galaxies between the rest--frame UV (from the ACS z band), and the rest--frame optical (WFC3 H band): the visual classification, Sersic indices and physical sizes of these galaxies are independent or only mildly dependent on the wavelength, within the errors.}, archivePrefix = {arXiv}, author = {Cassata, P. and Giavalisco, M. and Guo, Yicheng and Ferguson, H. and Koekemoer, A. and Renzini, A. and Fontana, A. and Salimbeni, S. and Dickinson, M. and Casertano, S. and Conselice, C. J. and Grogin, N. and Lotz, J. M. and Papovich, C. and Lucas, R. A. and Straughn, A. and Gardner, J. P. and Moustakas, L.}, citeulike-article-id = {6087671}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.1158}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://arxiv.org/pdf/0911.1158}, day = {6}, eprint = {0911.1158}, keywords = {astro-ph, compact, early-type, galaxy, goods, morphology, passive, size, surface-brightness, wfc3}, month = {Nov}, posted-at = {2009-11-09 11:26:32}, priority = {2}, title = {The Morphology of Passively Evolving Galaxies at z \~{} 2 from HST/WFC3 Deep Imaging in the Hubble Ultradeep Field}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.1158}, year = {2009} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:6087671 L3 - citeulike-article-id:6087671 N2 - We discuss near--IR images of six passive galaxies (SSFR<10^{-2} Gyr^{-1}) at redshift 1.3<z<2.4 with stellar mass M ~ 10^{11} M_sun, selected from the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), obtained with WFC3/IR and the Hubble Space Telescope. These WFC3 images provide the deepest and highest angular resolution view of the optical rest--frame morphology of such systems to date. We find that the light profile of these galaxies is generally regular and well described by a Sersic model with index typical of today's spheroids. We confirm the existence of compact and massive early--type galaxies at z ~ 2: four out of six galaxies have r_e ~ 1 kpc or less. The WFC3 images achieve limiting surface brightness~26.5 mag arcsec^{-2} in the F160W bandpass; yet there is no evidence of a faint halo in the five compact galaxies of our sample, nor is a halo observed in their stacked image. We also find very weak ``morphological k--correction'' in the galaxies between the rest--frame UV (from the ACS z band), and the rest--frame optical (WFC3 H band): the visual classification, Sersic indices and physical sizes of these galaxies are independent or only mildly dependent on the wavelength, within the errors. TI - The Morphology of Passively Evolving Galaxies at z ~ 2 from HST/WFC3 Deep Imaging in the Hubble Ultradeep Field KW - astro-ph KW - compact KW - early-type KW - galaxy KW - goods KW - morphology KW - passive KW - size KW - surface-brightness KW - wfc3 AU - Cassata, P AU - Giavalisco, M AU - Guo, Yicheng AU - Ferguson, H AU - Koekemoer, A AU - Renzini, A AU - Fontana, A AU - Salimbeni, S AU - Dickinson, M AU - Casertano, S AU - Conselice, CJ AU - Grogin, N AU - Lotz, JM AU - Papovich, C AU - Lucas, RA AU - Straughn, A AU - Gardner, JP AU - Moustakas, L PY - 2009/Nov/06/ UR - http://arxiv.org/abs/0911.1158 ER -