When do early-type galaxies form?
Abstract
We have used the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys to measure the mass density function of morphologically-selected early-type galaxies in the Gemini Deep Deep Survey fields, over the redshift range 0.9 < z < 1.6. Our imaging data set covers four well-separated sight-lines, and is roughly intermediate (in terms of both depth and area) between the GOODS/GEMS imaging data, and the images obtained in the Hubble Deep Field campaigns. Our images contain 144 galaxies with ultra-deep spectroscopy, and they have been analyzed using a new purpose-written morphological analysis code which improves the reliability of morphological classifications by adopting a `quasi-petrosian' image thresholding technique. We find that at z = 1 approximately 70% of the stars in massive galaxies reside in early-type systems. This fraction is remarkably similar to that seen in the local Universe. However, we detect very rapid evolution in this fraction over the range 1.0 < z < 1.6, suggesting that in this epoch the strong color-morphology relationship seen in the nearby Universe is beginning to fall into place.
- Publication:
-
Galaxy Evolution across the Hubble Time
- Pub Date:
- May 2007
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S174392130601012X
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0611322
- Bibcode:
- 2007IAUS..235..345A
- Keywords:
-
- galaxy evolution;
- galaxy formation;
- morphology;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 4 pages, 2 figures, Invited talk at IAU Symposium 235, Prague, August 2006