HST/WFPC2 Morphologies of K-selected Extremely Red Galaxies

Abstract

We selected 115 extremely red objects (EROs) from deep HST WFPC2 archive data combined with ground-based K-band images, with (F814W - Ks) >= 4mag, K-band SNR >= 5, and a median limiting Ks magnitude of 18.7mag, over a corresponding area of 228 sq. arcminutes, for a morphological study of the ERO galaxy population. The survey covered a total of 409 sq. arcminutes over 77 separate WFPC2 fields. This is the first complete sample of bright EROs with high resolution HST morphologies. From a visual morphological classification, we find that 30+/-5% of our EROs have morphologies consistent with a pure bulge or bulge-dominated galaxy (equivalent to E/S0), while disks comprise 64+/-$7% of the sample. Only 6% of the EROs remained unclassifiable. Mergers or strongly interacting systems, which includes sources from both classes, make up 17+/-4% of the full sample. The quantitative MDS profile fitting is consistent with these results. These results highlight the complex nature of optical/near-IR color selected EROs. The dominant component of our sample is comprised of disks, not spheroids or strongly interacting systems like HR10. Using Bruzual & Charlot SED models, we investigated population differences in EROs selected by their (I-K) vs. (R-K) colors and found that I-band based surveys preferentially select systems with prolonged star formation. Real differences in the surface densities of EROs in R-band and I-band based surveys may reflect this color selection effect, complicating the comparisons between and interpretations on the nature of the ERO population.