DESI Massive Post-Starburst Galaxies at $\mathbf{z\sim1.2}$ have compact structures and dense cores
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2024
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| author | Zhang, Yunchong Setton, David J. Price, Sedona H. Bezanson, Rachel Khullar, Gourav Newman, Jeffrey A. Aguilar, Jessica Nicole Ahlen, Steven Andrews, Brett H. Brooks, David Claybaugh, Todd de la Macorra, Axel Dey, Biprateep Doel, Peter Gaztañaga, Enrique Gontcho, Satya Gontcho A Greene, Jenny E. Juneau, Stephanie Kehoe, Robert Kisner, Theodore Kriek, Mariska Leja, Joel Manera, Marc Meisner, Aaron Miquel, Ramon Moustakas, John Prada, Francisco Rossi, Graziano Sanchez, Eusebio Schubnell, Michael Siudek, Małgorzata Spilker, Justin Sprayberry, David Suess, Katherine A. Tarlé, Gregory Zou, Hu |
| author_facet | Zhang, Yunchong Setton, David J. Price, Sedona H. Bezanson, Rachel Khullar, Gourav Newman, Jeffrey A. Aguilar, Jessica Nicole Ahlen, Steven Andrews, Brett H. Brooks, David Claybaugh, Todd de la Macorra, Axel Dey, Biprateep Doel, Peter Gaztañaga, Enrique Gontcho, Satya Gontcho A Greene, Jenny E. Juneau, Stephanie Kehoe, Robert Kisner, Theodore Kriek, Mariska Leja, Joel Manera, Marc Meisner, Aaron Miquel, Ramon Moustakas, John Prada, Francisco Rossi, Graziano Sanchez, Eusebio Schubnell, Michael Siudek, Małgorzata Spilker, Justin Sprayberry, David Suess, Katherine A. Tarlé, Gregory Zou, Hu |
| contents | Post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) are young quiescent galaxies that have recently experienced a rapid decrease in star formation, allowing us to probe the fast-quenching period of galaxy evolution. In this work, we obtained HST WFC3/F110W imaging to measure the sizes of 171 massive ($\mathrm{log(M_{*}/M_{\odot})\sim\,11)}$ spectroscopically identified PSBs at $1<z<1.3$ selected from the DESI Survey Validation Luminous Red Galaxy sample. This statistical sample constitutes an order of magnitude increase from the $\sim20$ PSBs with space-based imaging and deep spectroscopy. We perform structural fitting of the target galaxies with \texttt{pysersic} and compare them to quiescent and star-forming galaxies in the 3D-HST survey. We find that these PSBs are more compact than the general population of quiescent galaxies, lying systematically $\mathrm{\sim\,0.1\,dex}$ below the established size-mass relation. However, their central surface mass densities are similar to those of their quiescent counterparts ($\mathrm{\,log(Σ_{1\,kpc}/(M_{\odot}/kpc^2))\sim\,10.1}$). These findings are easily reconciled by later ex-situ growth via minor mergers or a slight progenitor bias. These PSBs are round in projection ($b/a_{median}\sim0.8$), suggesting that they are primarily spheroids, not disks, in 3D. We find no correlation between time since quenching and light-weighted PSB sizes or central densities. This disfavors apparent structural growth due to the fading of centralized starbursts in this galaxy population. Instead, we posit that the fast quenching of massive galaxies at this epoch occurs preferentially in galaxies with pre-existing compact structures. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_21257 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | DESI Massive Post-Starburst Galaxies at $\mathbf{z\sim1.2}$ have compact structures and dense cores Zhang, Yunchong Setton, David J. Price, Sedona H. Bezanson, Rachel Khullar, Gourav Newman, Jeffrey A. Aguilar, Jessica Nicole Ahlen, Steven Andrews, Brett H. Brooks, David Claybaugh, Todd de la Macorra, Axel Dey, Biprateep Doel, Peter Gaztañaga, Enrique Gontcho, Satya Gontcho A Greene, Jenny E. Juneau, Stephanie Kehoe, Robert Kisner, Theodore Kriek, Mariska Leja, Joel Manera, Marc Meisner, Aaron Miquel, Ramon Moustakas, John Prada, Francisco Rossi, Graziano Sanchez, Eusebio Schubnell, Michael Siudek, Małgorzata Spilker, Justin Sprayberry, David Suess, Katherine A. Tarlé, Gregory Zou, Hu Astrophysics of Galaxies Post-starburst galaxies (PSBs) are young quiescent galaxies that have recently experienced a rapid decrease in star formation, allowing us to probe the fast-quenching period of galaxy evolution. In this work, we obtained HST WFC3/F110W imaging to measure the sizes of 171 massive ($\mathrm{log(M_{*}/M_{\odot})\sim\,11)}$ spectroscopically identified PSBs at $1<z<1.3$ selected from the DESI Survey Validation Luminous Red Galaxy sample. This statistical sample constitutes an order of magnitude increase from the $\sim20$ PSBs with space-based imaging and deep spectroscopy. We perform structural fitting of the target galaxies with \texttt{pysersic} and compare them to quiescent and star-forming galaxies in the 3D-HST survey. We find that these PSBs are more compact than the general population of quiescent galaxies, lying systematically $\mathrm{\sim\,0.1\,dex}$ below the established size-mass relation. However, their central surface mass densities are similar to those of their quiescent counterparts ($\mathrm{\,log(Σ_{1\,kpc}/(M_{\odot}/kpc^2))\sim\,10.1}$). These findings are easily reconciled by later ex-situ growth via minor mergers or a slight progenitor bias. These PSBs are round in projection ($b/a_{median}\sim0.8$), suggesting that they are primarily spheroids, not disks, in 3D. We find no correlation between time since quenching and light-weighted PSB sizes or central densities. This disfavors apparent structural growth due to the fading of centralized starbursts in this galaxy population. Instead, we posit that the fast quenching of massive galaxies at this epoch occurs preferentially in galaxies with pre-existing compact structures. |
| title | DESI Massive Post-Starburst Galaxies at $\mathbf{z\sim1.2}$ have compact structures and dense cores |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.21257 |