2015/01/20 by H. Jabran Zahid, Ivana Damjanov, Zahid, H. Jabran +5
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) #Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO) #FOS: Physical sciences #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1501.04977
openalex publication_date 2015/01/20 · openalex created_date 2022/10/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We examine the relation between surface brightness, velocity dispersion and\nsize-the fundamental plane-for quiescent galaxies at intermediate redshifts\nin the COSMOS field. The COSMOS sample consists of \∼150 massive quiescent\ngalaxies with an average velocity dispersion \σ \∼ 250 km s-1 and\nredshifts between 0.2<z<0.8. More than half of the galaxies in the sample are\ncompact. The COSMOS galaxies exhibit a tight relation (\∼0.1 dex scatter)\nbetween surface brightness, velocity dispersion and size. At a fixed\ncombination of velocity dispersion and size, the COSMOS galaxies are brighter\nthan galaxies in the local universe. These surface brightness offsets are\ncorrelated with the rest-frame g-z color and Dn4000 index; bluer galaxies\nand those with smaller Dn4000 indices have larger offsets. Stellar\npopulation synthesis models indicate that the massive COSMOS galaxies are\nyounger and therefore brighter than similarly massive quiescent galaxies in the\nlocal universe. Passive evolution alone brings the massive compact quiescent\nCOSMOS galaxies onto the local fundamental plane at z = 0. Therefore,\nevolution in size or velocity dispersion for massive compact quiescent galaxies\nsince z\∼1 is constrained by the small scatter observed in the fundamental\nplane. We conclude that massive compact quiescent galaxies at z lesssim1 are\nnot a special class of objects but rather the tail of the mass and size\ndistribution of the normal quiescent galaxy population.\n