CAAUL Seminar - Galaxies inside-out: A kinematic study of massive high-redshift galaxies - 20 março 2014

Jesse van de Sande

Leiden Observatory

Abstract / Resumo

One of the most controversial questions regarding the formation and evolution of galaxies is when and how massive elliptical galaxies formed. Recent studies show that the first massive elliptical galaxies may have already been in place when the universe was only ∼3 Billion years old, but are surprisingly small in comparison with their local counterparts. This remarkable compactness of massive quiescent galaxies at z ~ 2 remains a highly debated issue. Whereas the size measurements of these compact galaxies have now been confirmed using deep imaging with WFC3 on HST, the stellar masses remain highly uncertain. To measure independent dynamical masses, we obtained high signal to noise near-infrared spectra of 5 massive (~2e11 Msun) quiescent galaxies at a redshift of z = 1-2 with X-Shooter on the VLT. I will present the comparison between photometric and dynamically derived masses for our distant galaxy sample, and discuss whether massive quiescent galaxies indeed were denser and smaller at earlier times. 

20 de março de 2014 | 15:30

Local

OAL - Observatório Astronómico de Lisboa

Seminar room at 15:30 with coffee, tea and biscuits from 15:15