2003/07/31 by Ignacio Trujillo, Gregory Rudnick, Hans‐Walter Rix +21 · 150 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astronomy #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy group #Hubble Deep Field #Hubble space telescope #Luminosity #Luminous infrared galaxy #Physics #Star formation #Stellar mass #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/382060
published in The Astrophysical Journal 604(2), 521-533 (IOP Publishing) · 39 pages, 14 figures, ApJ in press, new changes made to match the accepted version
arxiv created 2003/12/16 · openalex publication_date 2004/03/26 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The luminosity-size and mass-size distributions of galaxies out to z ~ 3 are presented. We use very deep near-infrared images of the Hubble Deep Field-South in the J s , H , and K s bands, taken as part of FIRES at the VLT, to follow the evolution of the optical rest-frame sizes of galaxies. For a total of 168 galaxies with K s ,AB ≤ 23.5, we find that the rest-frame V -band sizes r e , V of luminous galaxies ( ~ 2 × 10 10 h -2 L ☉ ) at 2 < z < 3 are 3 times smaller than for equally luminous galaxies today. In contrast, the mass-size relation has evolved relatively little: the size at mass ~ 2 × 10 10 h -2 M ☉ has changed by 20% (±20%) since z ~ 2.5. Both results can be reconciled by the fact that the stellar M / L ratio is lower in the luminous high- z galaxies than in nearby ones because they have young stellar populations. The lower incidence of large galaxies at z ~ 3 seems to reflect the rarity of galaxies with high stellar mass.