Fulltext

The bulge-disc decomposed evolution of massive galaxies at 1 < z < 3 in CANDELS

Bruce, V. A. ; Dunlop, J. S. ; McLure, R. J. ; Cirasuolo, M. ; Buitrago, F. ; Bowler, R. A. A. ; Targett, T. A. ; Bell, E. F. ; McIntosh, D. H. ; Dekel, A. ; Faber, S. M. ; Ferguson, H. C. ; Grogin, N. A. ; Hartley, W. ; Kocevski, D. D. ; Koekemoer, A. M. ; Koo, D. C. ; McGrath, E. J.

In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2014, vol. 444, no. 2, p. 1001-1033

Add to personal list
    Title
    • The bulge-disc decomposed evolution of massive galaxies at 1 < z < 3 in CANDELS
    Author
    • Bruce, V. A.. SUPA Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
    • Dunlop, J. S.. SUPA Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
    • McLure, R. J.. SUPA Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
    • Cirasuolo, M.. SUPA Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
    • Buitrago, F.. SUPA Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
    • Bowler, R. A. A.. SUPA Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
    • Targett, T. A.. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Sonoma State University,1801 East Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park, CA 94928-3609, USA
    • Bell, E. F.. Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
    • McIntosh, D. H.. Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Missouri-Kansas City, 5110 Rockhill Road, Kansas City, MO 64110, USA
    • Dekel, A.. Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel
    • Faber, S. M.. UCO/Lick Observatory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
    • Ferguson, H. C.. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
    • Grogin, N. A.. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
    • Hartley, W.. ETH Zürich, Institut für Astronomie, HIT J 11.3, Wolfgang-Pauli-Str. 27, 8093 Zürich, Switzerland
    • Kocevski, D. D.. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506, USA
    • Koekemoer, A. M.. Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
    • Koo, D. C.. UCO/Lick Observatory, Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
    • McGrath, E. J.. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Colby College, Waterville, ME 0490, USA
    Document Type
    • Postprint
    Language
    • English
    Published in
    • Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2014, vol. 444, no. 2, p. 1001-1033. Oxford University Press
    Other Version
    OAI-PMH Identifier
    • oai:doc.rero.ch:290711
    Summary
    We present the results of a new and improved study of the morphological and spectral evolution of massive galaxies over the redshift range 1 < z < 3. Our analysis is based on a bulge-disc decomposition of 396 galaxies with M* > 1011 M⊙ uncovered from the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3)/IR imaging within the Cosmological Evolution Survey (COSMOS) and UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey (UKIDSS) UDS survey fields. We find that, by modelling the H160 image of each galaxy with a combination of a de Vaucouleurs bulge (Sérsic index n = 4) and an exponential disc (n = 1), we can then lock all derived morphological parameters for the bulge and disc components, and successfully reproduce the shorter-wavelength J125, i814, v606 HST images simply by floating the magnitudes of the two components. This then yields sub-divided four-band HST photometry for the bulge and disc components which, with no additional priors, is well described by spectrophotometric models of galaxy evolution. Armed with this information, we are able to properly determine the masses and star formation rates for the bulge and disc components, and find that: (i) from z = 3 to 1 the galaxies move from disc dominated to increasingly bulge dominated, but very few galaxies are pure bulges/ellipticals by z = 1; (ii) while most passive galaxies are bulge dominated, and most star-forming galaxies disc dominated, 18 ± 5 per cent of passive galaxies are disc dominated, and 11 ± 3 per cent of star-forming galaxies are bulge dominated, a result which needs to be explained by any model purporting to connect star formation quenching with morphological transformations; (iii) there exists a small but significant population of pure passive discs, which are generally flatter than their star-forming counterparts (whose axial ratio distribution peaks at b/a ≃ 0.7); (iv) flatter/larger discs re-emerge at the highest star formation rates, consistent with recent studies of sub-mm galaxies, and with the concept of a maximum surface density for star formation activity