Hubble Space Telescope images of submillimeter sources: large, irregular galaxies at high redshift

We present new Hubble Space Telescope STIS, high-resolution optical imaging of a sample of 13 submillimeter (submm) luminous galaxies, for which the optical emission has been pinpointed either through radio-1.4 GHz or millimeter interferometry. We find a predominance of irregular and complex morphologies in the sample, suggesting that mergers are likely common for submm galaxies. The component separation in these objects are on average a factor two larger than local galaxies with similarly high bolometric luminosities. The sizes and star formation rates of the submm galaxies are consistent with the maximal star formation rate densities of 20 Msun kpc^{-2} in local starburst galaxies (Lehnert & Heckman 1996). We derive quantitative morphological information for the optical galaxies hosting the submm emission; total and isophotal magnitudes, Petrosian radius, effective radius, concentration, aspect ratio, surface brightness, and asymmetry. We compare these morphological indices with those of other galaxies lying within the same STIS images. Most strikingly, we find ~70% of the submm galaxies to be extraordinarily large and elongated relative to the field population, regardless of optical magnitude. Comparison of the submm galaxy morphologies with those of optically selected galaxies at z~2-3 reveal the submm galaxies to be a morphologically distinct population, with generally larger sizes, higher concentrations and more prevalent major-merger configurations.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, scheduled for ApJ, v599, Dec10, 2003. Minor edits. For version with higher resolution figures, see http://www.submm.caltech.edu/~schapman/ms_v3.ps.g

The Structures of Distant Galaxies V: The Evolution of Galaxy Structure in Stellar Mass at z < 1

Galaxy structure and morphology is nearly always studied using the light originating from stars, however ideally one is interested in measuring structure using the stellar mass distribution. Not only does stellar mass trace out the underlying distribution of matter, it also minimises the effects of star formation and dust on the appearance and structure of a galaxy. We present in this paper a study of the stellar mass distributions and structures of galaxies at z<1 as found within the GOODS fields. We use pixel by pixel K-corrections to construct stellar mass and mass-to-light ratio maps of 560 galaxies of known morphology at magnitudes z_{850}<24. We measure structural and size parameters using these stellar mass maps, as well as on ACS BViz band imaging. This includes investigating the structural CAS-Gini-M_{20} parameters and half-light radius for each galaxy. We compare structural parameters and half-light radii in the ACS z_{850}-band and stellar mass maps, finding no systematic bias introduced by measuring galaxy sizes in z_{850}. We furthermore investigate relations between structural parameters in the ACS BViz bands and stellar mass maps, and compare our result to previous morphological studies. Combinations of various parameters in stellar mass generally reveal clear separations between early and late type morphologies, but cannot easily distinguish between star formation and dynamically disturbed systems. We also show that while ellipticals and early-type spirals have fairly constant CAS values at z<1 we find a tendency for late-type spiral and peculiar morphological types to have a higher A(M_{*}) at higher redshift. We argue that this, and the large fraction of peculiars that appear spiral-like in stellar mass maps, are possible evidence for either an active bulge formation in some late-type disks at z<1 or the presence of minor merger events.Comment: 27 pages, MNRAS in pres

The Structures of Distant Galaxies I: Galaxy Structures and the Merger Rate to z~3 in the Hubble Ultra-Deep Field

This paper begins a series in which we examine the structures of distant galaxies to directly determine the history of their formation modes. We start this series by examining the structures of z_F850LP < 27 galaxies in the Hubble Ultra-Deep field, the deepest high-resolution optical image taken to date. We investigate a few basic features of galaxy structure using this image. These include: (1) The agreement of visual eye-ball classifications and non-parametric quantitative (CAS, Gini/M_20) methods; (2) How distant galaxy quantitative structures can vary as a function of rest-frame wavelength; and (3) The evolution of distant galaxy structures up to z~3. One of our major conclusions is that the majority of galaxies with z_850 < 27 are peculiar in appearance, and that galaxy assembly is rapidly occurring at these magnitudes, even up to the present time. We find a general agreement between galaxy classification by eye and through quantitative methods, as well as a general agreement between the CAS and the Gini/M_20 parameters. We find that the Gini/M_20 method appears to find a larger number of galaxy mergers than the CAS system, but contains a larger contamination from non-mergers. We furthermore calculate the merger rate of galaxies in the UDF up to z~3, finding an increase with redshift as well as stellar mass, confirming previous work in the Hubble Deep Field. We find that massive galaxies with M_{*} > 10^10 M_0 undergo 4.3_+0.8^-0.8 major galaxy mergers at z < 3, with all of this merging occurring at z > 1.Comment: MNRAS, submitte

The Tumultuous Formation of the Hubble Sequence at z > 1 Examined with HST/WFC3 Observations of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field

We examine in this paper a stellar mass selected sample of galaxies at 1 < z < 3 within the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, utilising WFC3 imaging to study the rest-frame optical morphological distribution of galaxies at this epoch. We measure how apparent morphologies (disk, elliptical, peculiar) correlate with physical properties, such as quantitative structure and spectral-types. One primary result is that apparent morphology does not correlate strongly with stellar populations, nor with galaxy structure at this epoch, suggesting a chaotic formation history for Hubble types at z > 1. By using a locally defined definition of disk and elliptical galaxies based on structure and spectral-type, we find no true ellipticals at z > 2, and a fraction of 3.2+/-2.3% at 1.5 < z < 2. Local counterparts of disk galaxies are at a similar level of 7-10%, much lower than the 75% fraction at lower redshifts. We further compare WFC3 images with the rest-frame UV view of galaxies from ACS imaging, showing that galaxies imaged with ACS that appear peculiar often contain an `elliptical' like morphology in WFC3. We show through several simulations that this larger fraction of elliptical-like galaxies is partially due to the courser PSF of WFC3, and that the `elliptical' class very likely includes early-type disks. We also measure the merger history for our sample using CAS parameters, finding a redshift evolution increasing with redshift, and a peak merger fraction of ~30% at z~2 for the most massive galaxies with M_*> 10^{10} M_sol, consistent with previous results from ACS and NICMOS. We compare our results to semi-analytical model results and find a relatively good agreement between our morphological break-down and the predictions. Finally, we argue that the peculiars, ellipticals and peculiar ellipticals have similar properties, suggesting similar formation modes, likely driven by major mergers.Comment: 21 pages, submitted to MNRA

The Formation of Low-Mass Cluster Galaxies and the Universal Initial Galaxy Mass Function

Clusters of galaxies have an observed over-density of low-luminosity systems in comparison to the field, although it is not yet agreed whether this effect is the result of initial galaxy mass functions that vary with environment or galaxy evolutionary effects. In this letter we argue that this over-density is the result of low-mass systems with red colors that are over-populating the faint-end of the observed luminosity function in the nearby rich cluster Abell 0426. We show that the luminosity function of Abell 0426 becomes steeper, from the field value alpha = -1.25+/-0.05 to alpha=-1.44+/-0.04, due to a recently identified population of red low-mass cluster galaxies that are possibly the remnants of dynamical stripped high-mass systems. We further demonstrate, through simple models of stripping effects, how cluster luminosity functions can become artificially steep over time from the production of these low-mass cluster galaxies.Comment: Accepted to ApJ letter

Asymmetry measures for QSOs and companions

An asymmetry index is derived from ellipse-fitting to galaxy images, that gives weight to faint outer features and is not strongly redshift-dependent. These measures are made on a sample of 13 2MASS QSOs and their neighbour galaxies, and a control sample of field galaxies from the same wide-field imaging data. The QSO host galaxy asymmetries correlate well with visual tidal interaction indices previously published. The companion galaxies have somewhat higher asymmetry than the control galaxy sample, and their asymmetry is inversely correlated with distance from the QSO. The distribution of QSO-companion asymmetry indices is different from that for matched control field galaxies at the $\sim95$ significance level. We present the data and discuss this evidence for tidal and other disturbances in the vicinity of QSOs.Comment: 13 pages, 2 tables, 4 figures; to appear in A

Exploring the evolutionary paths of the most massive galaxies since z~2

We use Spitzer MIPS data from the FIDEL Legacy Project in the Extended Groth Strip to analyze the stellar mass assembly of massive (M>10^11 M_sun) galaxies at z<2 as a function of structural parameters. We find 24 micron emission for more than 85% of the massive galaxies morphologically classified as disks, and for more than 57% of the massive systems morphologically classified as spheroids at any redshift, with about 8% of sources harboring a bright X-ray and/or infrared emitting AGN. More noticeably, 60% of all compact massive galaxies at z=1-2 are detected at 24 micron, even when rest-frame optical colors reveal that they are dead and evolving passively. For spheroid-like galaxies at a given stellar mass, the sizes of MIPS non-detections are smaller by a factor of 1.2 in comparison with IR-bright sources. We find that disk-like massive galaxies present specific SFRs ranging from 0.04 to 0.2 Gyr^-1 at z<1 (SFRs ranging from 1 to 10 M_sun/yr), typically a factor of 3-6 higher than massive spheroid-like objects in the same redshift range. At z>1, and more pronouncedly at z>1.3, the median specific SFRs of the disks and spheroids detected by MIPS are very similar, ranging from 0.1 to 1 Gyr^-1 (SFR=10-200 M_sun/yr). We estimate that massive spheroid-like galaxies may have doubled (at the most) their stellar mass from star-forming events at z<2: less than 20% mass increase at 1.7<z<2.0, up to 40% more at 1.1<z<1.7, and less than 20% additional increase at z<1. Disk-like galaxies may have tripled (at the most) their stellar mass at z<2 from star formation alone: up to 40% mass increase at 1.7<z<2.0, and less than 180% additional increase below z=1.7 occurred at a steady rate.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ; 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl