Constraints on the Early Formation of Field Elliptical Galaxies
Abstract
We present the results of an HK' wide-field survey encompassing the Hubble Deep Field and its flanking fields. Our wide-field survey provides uniform coverage of a 61.8 arcmin^2 area to a depth equivalent to K=20.1 at 5 sigma. We have also imaged the Hubble Deep Field in HK^', providing uniform coverage of a 7.8 arcmin^2 area to a depth equivalent to K=21.2 at 5 sigma. Using these data in combination with new deep University of Hawaii 8K V and I imaging obtained on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, we find only a small population of objects with colors redder than an equivalent I-K=4, the color expected for an evolved elliptical galaxy at z>1. We infer that only a fraction of the local field elliptical galaxy population with M_K<-23.4 could have formed in single bursts at high redshift.
- Publication:
-
The Astronomical Journal
- Pub Date:
- January 1999
- DOI:
- 10.1086/300675
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/9809299
- Bibcode:
- 1999AJ....117..102B
- Keywords:
-
- COSMOLOGY: OBSERVATIONS;
- GALAXIES: EVOLUTION;
- GALAXIES: PHOTOMETRY;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 20 pages, to appear in the Jan 1999 issue of The Astronomical Journal