No Arabic abstract
It is not well understood whether the growth of early-type cluster galaxies proceeds inside-out, outside-in, or at the same pace at all radii. In this work we measured the galaxy size, defined by the radius including 80% of the galaxy light, non-parametrically. We also determined a non-parametric estimate of galaxy light concentration, which measures the curvature of the surface brightness profile in the galaxy outskirts. We used an almost random sampling of a mass-limited sample formed by 128 morphologically early-type galaxies in clusters with $log M/M_{odot} ga 10.7$ spanning the wide range $0.17<z<1.81$. From these data we derived the size-mass and concentration-mass relations, as well as their evolution. At 80% light radius, early-type galaxies in clusters are about 2.7 times larger than at 50% radius at all redshifts, and close to de Vaucouleurs profiles in the last 10 Gyr. While between $z=2$ and $z=0$ both half-light and 80% light sizes increase by a factor of $1.7$, concentration stays constant within $2$%, that is to say the size growth of early-type galaxies in cluster environments proceeds at the same pace at both radii. Existing physical explanations proposed in the literature are inconsistent with our results, demonstrating the need for dedicated numerical simulations to identify the physical mechanism affecting the galaxy structure.
[ABRIDGED] We aim to provide a holistic view on the typical size and kinematic evolution of massive early-type galaxies (ETGs), that encompasses their high-$z$ star-forming progenitors, their high-$z$ quiescent counterparts, and their configurations in the local Universe. Our investigation covers the main processes playing a relevant role in the cosmic evolution of ETGs. Specifically, their early fast evolution comprises: biased collapse of the low angular momentum gaseous baryons located in the inner regions of the host dark matter halo; cooling, fragmentation, and infall of the gas down to the radius set by the centrifugal barrier; further rapid compaction via clump/gas migration toward the galaxy center, where strong heavily dust-enshrouded star-formation takes place and most of the stellar mass is accumulated; ejection of substantial gas amount from the inner regions by feedback processes, which causes a dramatic puffing up of the stellar component. In the late slow evolution, passive aging of stellar populations and mass additions by dry merger events occur. We describe these processes relying on prescriptions inspired by basic physical arguments and by numerical simulations, to derive new analytical estimates of the relevant sizes, timescales, and kinematic properties for individual galaxies along their evolution. Then we obtain quantitative results as a function of galaxy mass and redshift, and compare them to recent observational constraints on half-light size $R_e$, on the ratio $v/sigma$ between rotation velocity and velocity dispersion (for gas and stars) and on the specific angular momentum $j_star$ of the stellar component; we find good consistency with the available multi-band data in average values and dispersion, both for local ETGs and for their $zsim 1-2$ star-forming and quiescent progenitors.
We analyze $Chandra$ observations of the hot atmospheres of 40 early spiral and elliptical galaxies. Using new temperature, density, cooling time, and mass profiles, we explore relationships between their hot atmospheres and cold molecular gas. Molecular gas mass correlates with atmospheric gas mass and density over four decades from central galaxies in clusters to normal giant ellipticals and early spirals. The mass and density relations follow power laws: $M_{rm mol} propto M_{rm X}^{1.4pm0.1}$ and $M_{rm mol} propto n_{rm e}^{1.8pm0.3}$, respectively, at 10 kpc. The ratio of molecular gas to atmospheric gas within a 10 kpc radius lies between $3%$ and $10%$ for early-type galaxies and between $3%$ and $50%$ for central galaxies in clusters. Early-type galaxies have detectable levels of molecular gas when their atmospheric cooling times falls below $sim rm Gyr$ at a radius of 10 kpc. A similar trend is found in central cluster galaxies. We find no relationship between the ratio of the cooling time to free fall time, $t_{rm c}/t_{rm ff}$, and the presence or absence of molecular clouds in early-type galaxies. The data are consistent with much of the molecular gas in early-type galaxies having condensed from their hot atmospheres.
[abridged] This work aims to observationally investigate the history of size growth of early-type galaxies and how the growth depends on cosmic epoch and the mass of the halo in which they are embedded. We carried out a photometric and structural analysis in the rest-frame $V$ band of a mass-selected ($log M/M_odot >10.7$) sample of red-sequence early-type galaxies with spectroscopic/grism redshift in the general field up to $z=2$ to complement a previous work presenting an identical analysis but in halos 100 times more massive and 1000 times denser. We homogeneously derived sizes (effective radii) fully accounting for the multi-component nature of galaxies and the common presence of isophote twists and ellipticity gradients. By using these mass-selected samples, composed of 170 red-sequence early-type galaxies in the general field and 224 identically selected and analyzed in clusters, we isolate the effect on galaxy sizes of the halo in which galaxies are embedded and its dependence on epoch. We find that the $log$ of the galaxy size at a fixed stellar mass, $log M/M_odot= 11$, has increased with epoch at a rate twice as fast in the field than in cluster in the last 10 Gyr ($0.26pm0.03$ versus $0.13pm0.02$ dex per unit redshift). Red-sequence early-type galaxies in the general field reached the size of their cousins in denser environment by $z=0.25pm0.13$ in spite of being three times smaller at $zsim2$. Data point toward a model where size growth is epoch-independent (i.e., $partial log r_e /partial z = c$), but with a rate $c$ depending on environment, $partial c /partial log M_{halo} approx 0.05$. Environment determines the growth rate ($d log r_e / dz$) at all redshifts, indicating an external origin for the galaxy growth without any clear epoch where it ceases to have an effect.
A strong correlation exists between the total mass of a globular cluster (GC) system and the virial halo mass of the host galaxy. However, the total halo mass in this correlation is a statistical measure conducted on spatial scales that are some ten times that of a typical GC system. Here we investigate the connection between GC systems and galaxys dark matter on comparable spatial scales, using dynamical masses measured on a galaxy-by-galaxy basis. Our sample consists of 17 well-studied massive (stellar mass $sim$10$^{11}$ M$_{odot}$) early-type galaxies from the SLUGGS survey. We find the strongest correlation to be that of the blue (metal-poor) GC subpopulation and the dark matter content. This correlation implies that the dark matter mass of a galaxy can be estimated to within a factor of two from careful imaging of its GC system. The ratio of the GC system mass to that of the enclosed dark matter is nearly constant. We also find a strong correlation between the fraction of blue GCs and the fraction of enclosed dark matter, so that a typical galaxy with a blue GC fraction of 60 per cent has a dark matter fraction of 86 per cent over similar spatial scales. Both halo growth and removal (via tidal stripping) may play some role in shaping this trend. In the context of the two-phase model for galaxy formation, we find galaxies with the highest fractions of accreted stars to have higher dark matter fractions for a given fraction of blue GCs.
The late assembly of massive galaxies is thought to be dominated by stellar accretion in their outskirts (beyond 2 effective radii Re) due to dry, minor galaxy mergers. We use observations of 1010 passive early-type galaxies (ETGs) within z<0.15 from SDSS IV MaNGA to search for evidence of this accretion. The outputs from the stellar population fitting codes FIREFLY, pPXF, and Prospector are compared to control for systematic errors in stellar metallicity (Z) estimation. We find that the average radial logZ/Zsun profiles of ETGs in various stellar mass (M) bins are not linear. As a result, these profiles are poorly characterized by a single gradient value, explaining why weak trends reported in previous work can be difficult to interpret. Instead, we examine the full radial extent of stellar metallicity profiles and find them to flatten in the outskirts of M>10^{11}Msun ETGs. This is a signature of stellar accretion. Based on a toy model for stellar metallicity profiles, we infer the ex-situ stellar mass fraction in ETGs as a function of M and galactocentric radius. We find that ex-situ stars at 2Re make up 20% of the projected stellar mass of M<10^{10.5}Msun ETGs, rising up to 80% for M>10^{11.5}Msun ETGs.