1112.0313 (Katherine E. Whitaker et al.)

A Large Population of Massive Compact Post-Starburst Galaxies at z>1: Implications for the Size Evolution and Quenching Mechanism of Quiescent Galaxies    [PDF]

Katherine E. Whitaker, Mariska Kriek, Pieter G. van Dokkum, Rachel Bezanson, Gabriel Brammer, Marijn Franx, Ivo Labbe

We study the growth of the red sequence through the number density and structural evolution of a sample of young and old quiescent galaxies at 01 that are almost non-existent at z<1; their number density is 5 x 10^{-5} Mpc^{-3} at z=2, whereas it is a factor of 10 less at z=0.5. The observed number densities of young and old quiescent galaxies at z>1 are consistent with a simple model in which all old quiescent galaxies were once identified as post-starburst galaxies. We find that the overall population of quiescent galaxies have smaller sizes and slightly more elongated shapes at higher redshift, in agreement with other recent studies. Interestingly, the most recently quenched galaxies at 1View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.0313