arXiv · 1305.6931
Structural Evolution of Early-type Galaxies to z=2.5 in CANDELS
Abstract
Projected axis ratio measurements of 880 early-type galaxies at redshifts 1 1 early-type galaxies show a variety of intrinsic shapes; even at a fixed mass, the projected axis ratio distributions cannot be explained by the random projection of a set of galaxies with very similar intrinsic shapes. However, a two-population model for the intrinsic shapes, consisting of a triaxial, fairly round population, combined with a flat (c/a~0.3) oblate population, adequately describes the projected axis ratio distributions of both present-day and z>1 early-type galaxies. We find that the proportion of oblate versus triaxial galaxies depends both on the galaxies' stellar mass, and - at a given mass - on redshift. For present-day and z<1 early-type galaxies the oblate fraction strongly depends on galaxy mass. At z>1 this trend is much weaker over the mass range explored here (10^10 1, compared to 0.20+-0.02 at z~0.1. In contrast, the oblate fraction among low-mass early-type galaxies (log(M*/M_sun)<10.5) increased toward the present, from 0.38+-0.11 at z>1 to 0.72+-0.06 at z=0. [Abridged]
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Yu-Yen Chang, Arjen van der Wel, Hans-Walter Rix, Bradford Holden, Eric F. Bell, Elizabeth J. McGrath, Stijn Wuyts, Boris Häußler, Marco Barden, S. M. Faber, Mark Mozena, Henry C. Ferguson, Yicheng Guo, Audrey Galametz, Norman A. Grogin, Dale D. Kocevski, Anton M. Koekemoer, Avishai Dekel, Kuang-Han Huang, Nimish P. Hathi, Jennifer Donley. 2013-05-29. Structural Evolution of Early-type Galaxies to z=2.5 in CANDELS. https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637x/773/2/149
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.