The Bulge–Disc Decomposed Evolution of Massive Galaxies at 1 < z < 3 in CANDELS

Authors

V. A. Bruce, University of Edinburgh, UK
J. S. Dunlop, University of Edinburgh, UK
R. J. McLure, University of Edinburgh, UK
M. Cirasuolo, University of Edinburgh, UK
F. Buitrago, University of Edinburgh, UK
R. A. A. Bowler, University of Edinburgh, UK
T. A. Targett, Sonoma State University
E. F. Bell, University of Michigan
D. H. McIntosh, University of Missouri - Kansas City
A. Dekel, Hebrew University, Israel
S. M. Faber, University of California - Santa Cruz
H. C. Ferguson, Space Telescope Science Institute
N. A. Grogin, Space Telescope Science Institute
W. Hartley, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Dale D. Kocevski, University of KentuckyFollow
A. M. Koekemoer, Space Telescope Science Institute
D. C. Zoo, University of California - Santa Cruz
E. J. McGrath, Colby College

Abstract

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.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-21-2014

Notes/Citation Information

Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, v. 444, no. 2, p. 1001-1003.

This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2014 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stu1478

Funding Information

VAB acknowledges the support of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) via the award of an STFC Studentship. VAB and JSD acknowledge the support of the EC FP7 Space project ASTRODEEP (Ref. No: 312725). JSD, RAAB, FB and TAT acknowledge the support of the European Research Council via the award of an Advanced Grant. JSD and RJM acknowledge the support of the Royal Society via a Wolfson Research Merit Award and a University Research Fellowship respectively. RJM acknowledges the support of the Leverhulme Trust via the award of a Philip Leverhulme Research Prize and acknowledges the financial support of the European Research Council via the award of an ERC consolidator grant (PI McLure). MC acknowledges the support of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) via the award of an STFC Advanced Fellowship. US authors acknowledge support from NASA grants for HSTProgram GO-12060. SMF, DCK, DDK and EJM also acknowledge support from NSF grant AST-08-08133.

This work is based in part on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc, under NASA contract NAS5-26555. This work is based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology under NASA contract 1407.

Repository Citation

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, Dale D.; Koekemoer, A. M.; Zoo, D. C.; and McGrath, E. J., "The Bulge–Disc Decomposed Evolution of Massive Galaxies at 1 < z < 3 in CANDELS" (2014). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 284.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/284