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dc.contributor.authorWellons, Sarah
dc.contributor.authorTorrey, Paul
dc.contributor.authorMa, Chung-Pei
dc.contributor.authorRodriguez-Gomez, Vicente
dc.contributor.authorVogelsberger, Mark
dc.contributor.authorKriek, Mariska
dc.contributor.authorvan Dokkum, Pieter
dc.contributor.authorNelson, Erica
dc.contributor.authorGenel, Shy
dc.contributor.authorPillepich, Annalisa
dc.contributor.authorSpringel, Volker
dc.contributor.authorSijacki, Debora
dc.contributor.authorSnyder, Gregory
dc.contributor.authorNelson, Dylan
dc.contributor.authorSales, Laura
dc.contributor.authorHernquist, Lars
dc.date.accessioned2015-09-11T13:20:10Z
dc.date.available2015-09-11T13:20:10Z
dc.date.issued2015-03
dc.date.submitted2015-01
dc.identifier.issn0035-8711
dc.identifier.issn1365-2966
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/98461
dc.description.abstractMassive, quiescent galaxies at high redshift have been found to be considerably more compact than galaxies of similar mass in the local universe. How these compact galaxies formed has yet to be determined, though several progenitor populations have been proposed. Here we investigate the formation processes and quantify the assembly histories of such galaxies in Illustris, a suite of hydrodynamical cosmological simulations encompassing a sufficiently large volume to include rare objects, while simultaneously resolving the internal structure of galaxies. We select massive (~10[superscript 11] M[subscript ⊙]) and compact (stellar half-mass radius <2 kpc) galaxies from the simulation at z = 2. Within the Illustris suite, we find that these quantities are not perfectly converged, but are reasonably reliable for our purposes. The resulting population is composed primarily of quiescent galaxies, but we also find several star-forming compact galaxies. The simulated compact galaxies are similar to observed galaxies in star formation activity and appearance. We follow their evolution at high redshift in the simulation and find that there are multiple pathways to form these compact galaxies, dominated by two mechanisms: (i) intense, centrally concentrated starbursts generally triggered by gas-rich major mergers between z ~ 2–4, reducing the galaxies’ half-mass radii by a factor of a few to below 2 kpc, and (ii) assembly at very early times when the universe was much denser; the galaxies formed compact and remained so until z ~ 2.en_US
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherOxford University Pressen_US
dc.relation.isversionofhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv303en_US
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alikeen_US
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/en_US
dc.sourcearXiven_US
dc.titleThe formation of massive, compact galaxies at z = 2 in the Illustris simulationen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US
dc.identifier.citationWellons, S., P. Torrey, C.-P. Ma, V. Rodriguez-Gomez, M. Vogelsberger, M. Kriek, P. van Dokkum, et al. “The Formation of Massive, Compact Galaxies at z = 2 in the Illustris Simulation.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 449, no. 1 (March 14, 2015): 361–372.en_US
dc.contributor.departmentMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physicsen_US
dc.contributor.mitauthorTorrey, Paulen_US
dc.contributor.mitauthorVogelsberger, Marken_US
dc.relation.journalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societyen_US
dc.eprint.versionAuthor's final manuscripten_US
dc.type.urihttp://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticleen_US
eprint.statushttp://purl.org/eprint/status/PeerRevieweden_US
dspace.orderedauthorsWellons, S.; Torrey, P.; Ma, C.-P.; Rodriguez-Gomez, V.; Vogelsberger, M.; Kriek, M.; van Dokkum, P.; Nelson, E.; Genel, S.; Pillepich, A.; Springel, V.; Sijacki, D.; Snyder, G.; Nelson, D.; Sales, L.; Hernquist, L.en_US
dc.identifier.orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-8593-7692
dc.identifier.orcidhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-5653-0786
mit.licenseOPEN_ACCESS_POLICYen_US
mit.metadata.statusComplete


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