[en] Early quiescent galaxies at $z\sim <!--\; ???\; -->2$ are known to be remarkably compact compared to their nearby counterparts. Possible progenitors of these systems include galaxies that are structurally similar, but are still rapidly forming stars. Here, we present Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations of the CO(1–0) line toward three such compact, star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at $z\sim <!--\; ???\; -->2.3$, significantly detecting one. The VLA observations indicate baryonic gas fractions $\gtrsim <!--\; ???\; -->5$ times lower and gas depletion timescales $\gtrsim <!--\; ???\; -->10$ times shorter than normal, extended massive SFGs at these redshifts. At their current star formation rates, all three objects will deplete their gas reservoirs within 100 Myr. These objects are among the most gas-poor objects observed at $z><!--\; >\; -->2$, and are outliers from standard gas scaling relations, a result that remains true regardless of assumptions about the CO–H₂ conversion factor. Our observations are consistent with the idea that compact, SFGs are in a rapid state of transition to quiescence in tandem with the buildup of the $z\sim <!--\; ???\; -->2$ quenched population. In the detected compact galaxy, we see no evidence of rotation or that the CO-emitting gas is spatially extended relative to the stellar light. This casts doubt on recent suggestions that the gas in these compact galaxies is rotating and significantly extended compared to the stars. Instead, we suggest that, at least for this object, the gas is centrally concentrated, and only traces a small fraction of the total galaxy dynamical mass.

[en] We present Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) CO(2–1) spectroscopy of six massive (log₁₀ $M_{\ast <!--\; ???\; -->}$/$M_{\odot <!--\; ???\; -->}$ > 11.3) quiescent galaxies at z ∼ 1.5. These data represent the largest sample using CO emission to trace molecular gas in quiescent galaxies above z > 1, achieving an average 3σ sensitivity of $M_{{\mathrm{H}}_2}$ ∼ 10¹⁰ $M_{\odot <!--\; ???\; -->}$. We detect one galaxy at 4σ significance and place upper limits on the molecular gas reservoirs of the other five, finding molecular gas mass fractions $M_{{\mathrm{H}}_2}/M_{\ast <!--\; ???\; -->}=f_{{\mathrm{H}}_2}<<!--\; <\; -->2\mathrm{\%<!--\; \%\; -->}\text{--}6\mathrm{\%<!--\; \%\; -->}$ (3σ upper limits). This is 1–2 orders of magnitude lower than coeval star-forming galaxies at similar stellar mass, and comparable to galaxies at z = 0 with similarly low specific star formation rate (sSFR). This indicates that their molecular gas reservoirs were rapidly and efficiently used up or destroyed, and that gas fractions are uniformly low (<6%) despite the structural diversity of our sample. The implied rapid depletion time of molecular gas ($t_{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{e}\mathrm{p}}$< 0.6 Gyr) disagrees with extrapolations of empirical scaling relations to low sSFR. We find that our low gas fractions are instead in agreement with predictions from both the recent simba cosmological simulation, and from analytical “bathtub” models for gas accretion onto galaxies in massive dark matter halos (log${}_{10}{M}_{\mathrm{h}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{o}}/M_{\odot <!--\; ???\; -->}\sim <!--\; ???\; -->14$ at z = 0). Such high mass halos reach a critical mass of log${}_{10}{M}_{\mathrm{h}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{l}\mathrm{o}}/M_{\odot <!--\; ???\; -->}><!--\; >\; -->12$ by z ∼ 4 that halt the accretion of baryons early in the universe. Our data are consistent with a simple picture where galaxies truncate accretion and then consume the existing gas at or faster than typical main-sequence rates. Alternatively, we cannot rule out that these galaxies reside in lower mass halos, and low gas fractions may instead reflect either stronger feedback, or more efficient gas consumption.

[en] We report the detection of morphology-dependent stellar age in massive quenched galaxies (QGs) at z ∼ 1.2. The sense of the dependence is that compact QGs are 0.5–2 Gyr older than normal-sized ones. The evidence comes from three different age indicators—$D_{n}4000$, ${\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{\delta <!--\; ??\; -->}}$, and fits to spectral synthesis models—applied to their stacked optical spectra. All age indicators consistently show that the stellar populations of compact QGs are older than those of their normal-sized counterparts. We detect weak [O ii] emission in a fraction of QGs, and the strength of the line, when present, is similar between the two samples; however, compact galaxies exhibit a significantly lower frequency of [O ii] emission than normal ones. Fractions of both samples are individually detected in 7 Ms Chandra X-ray images (luminosities ∼10⁴⁰–10⁴¹ erg s⁻¹). The 7 Ms stacks of nondetected galaxies show similarly low luminosities in the soft band only, consistent with a hot gas origin for the X-ray emission. While both [O ii] emitters and nonemitters are also X-ray sources among normal galaxies, no compact galaxy with [O ii] emission is an X-ray source, arguing against an active galactic nucleus (AGN) powering the line in compact galaxies. We interpret the [O ii] properties as further evidence that compact galaxies are older and further along in the process of quenching star formation and suppressing gas accretion. Finally, we argue that the older age of compact QGs is evidence of progenitor bias: compact QGs simply reflect the smaller sizes of galaxies at their earlier quenching epoch, with stellar density most likely having nothing directly to do with cessation of star formation.

[en] We discuss the state of the assembly of the Hubble sequence in the mix of bright galaxies at redshift 1.4 < z ≤ 2.5 with a large sample of 1671 galaxies down to H_AB ∼ 26, selected from the HST/ACS and WFC3 images of the GOODS-South field obtained as part of the GOODS and CANDELS observations. We investigate the relationship between the star formation properties and morphology using various parametric diagnostics, such as the Sérsic light profile, Gini (G), M₂₀, concentration (C), asymmetry (A), and multiplicity (Ψ) parameters. Our sample clearly separates into massive, red, and passive galaxies versus less massive, blue, and star-forming ones, and this dichotomy correlates very well with the galaxies' morphological properties. Star-forming galaxies show a broad variety of morphological features, including clumpy structures and bulges mixed with faint low surface brightness features, generally characterized by disky-type light profiles. Passively evolving galaxies, on the other hand, very often have compact light distribution and morphology typical of today's spheroidal systems. We also find that artificially redshifted local galaxies have a similar distribution with z ∼ 2 galaxies in a G-M₂₀ plane. Visual inspection between the rest-frame optical and UV images show that there is a generally weak morphological k-correction for galaxies at z ∼ 2, but the comparison with non-parametric measures show that galaxies in the rest-frame UV are somewhat clumpier than rest-frame optical. Similar general trends are observed in the local universe among massive galaxies, suggesting that the backbone of the Hubble sequence was already in place at z ∼ 2

[en] We measure the angular two-point correlation function of submillimeter galaxies (SMGs) from 1.1 mm imaging of the COSMOS field with the AzTEC camera and ASTE 10 m telescope. These data yield one of the largest contiguous samples of SMGs to date, covering an area of 0.72 deg² down to a 1.26 mJy beam^-1 (1σ) limit, including 189 (328) sources with S/N ≥3.5 (3). We can only set upper limits to the correlation length r₀, modeling the correlation function as a power law with pre-assigned slope. Assuming existing redshift distributions, we derive 68.3% confidence level upper limits of r₀ ∼< 6-8h^-1 Mpc at 3.7 mJy and r₀ ∼< 11-12 h^-1 Mpc at 4.2 mJy. Although consistent with most previous estimates, these upper limits imply that the real r₀ is likely smaller. This casts doubts on the robustness of claims that SMGs are characterized by significantly stronger spatial clustering (and thus larger mass) than differently selected galaxies at high redshift. Using Monte Carlo simulations we show that even strongly clustered distributions of galaxies can appear unclustered when sampled with limited sensitivity and coarse angular resolution common to current submillimeter surveys. The simulations, however, also show that unclustered distributions can appear strongly clustered under these circumstances. From the simulations, we predict that at our survey depth, a mapped area of 2 deg² is needed to reconstruct the correlation function, assuming smaller beam sizes of future surveys (e.g., the Large Millimeter Telescope's 6'' beam size). At present, robust measures of the clustering strength of bright SMGs appear to be below the reach of most observations.

[en] In this Letter, we reconstruct the formation pathway of MRG-S0851, a massive, $\mathrm{l}\mathrm{o}\mathrm{g}{M}_{\ast <!--\; ???\; -->}/M_{\odot <!--\; ???\; -->}=11.02\pm <!--\; ??\; -->0.04$, strongly lensed, red galaxy at z = 1.883 ± 0.001. While the global photometry and spatially resolved outskirts of MRG-S0851 imply an early formation scenario with a slowly decreasing or constant star formation history, a joint fit of 2D grism spectroscopy and photometry reveals a more complex scenario: MRG-S0851 is likely to be experiencing a centrally concentrated rejuvenation in the inner ∼1 kpc in the last ∼100 Myr of evolution. We estimate 0.5 ± 0.1% of the total stellar mass is formed in this phase. Rejuvenation episodes are suggested to be infrequent for massive galaxies at z ∼ 2, but as our analyses indicate, more examples of complex star formation histories may yet be hidden within existing data. By adding an FUV color criterion to the standard U–V/V–J diagnostic—thereby heightening our sensitivity to recent star formation—we show that we can select populations of galaxies with similar spectral energy distributions to that of MRG-S0851, but note that deep follow-up spectroscopic observations and/or spatially resolved analyses are necessary to robustly confirm the rejuvenation of these candidates. Using our criteria with MRG-S0851 as a prototype, we estimate that ∼1% of massive quiescent galaxies at 1 < z < 2 are potentially rejuvenating.

[en] We present constraints on the dust continuum flux and inferred gas content of a gravitationally lensed massive quiescent galaxy at z = 1.883 ± 0.001 using AzTEC 1.1 mm imaging with the Large Millimeter Telescope. MRG-S0851 appears to be a prototypical massive compact quiescent galaxy, but evidence suggests that it experienced a centrally concentrated rejuvenation event in the last 100 Myr. This galaxy is undetected in the AzTEC image but we calculate an upper limit on the millimeter flux and use this to estimate the H₂ mass limit via an empirically calibrated relation that assumes a constant molecular-gas-to-dust ratio of 150. We constrain the 3σ upper limit of the H₂ fraction from the dust continuum in MRG-S0851 to be $M_{{\mathrm{H}}_2}/M_{\star <!--\; ???\; -->}⩽<!--\; ???\; -->6.8\mathrm{\%<!--\; \%\; -->}$. MRG-S0851 has a low gas fraction limit with a moderately low sSFR owing to the recent rejuvenation episode, which together result in a relatively short depletion time of <0.6 Gyr if no further H₂ gas is accreted. Empirical and analytical models both predict that we should have detected molecular gas in MRG-S0851, especially given the rejuvenation episode; this suggests that cold gas and/or dust is rapidly depleted in at least some early quiescent galaxies.

[en] We combine high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 images with multi-wavelength photometry to track the evolution of structure and activity of massive (M_* > 10¹⁰ M_☉) galaxies at redshifts z = 1.4-3 in two fields of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. We detect compact, star-forming galaxies (cSFGs) whose number densities, masses, sizes, and star formation rates (SFRs) qualify them as likely progenitors of compact, quiescent, massive galaxies (cQGs) at z = 1.5-3. At z ∼> 2, cSFGs present SFR = 100-200 M_☉ yr^–1, yet their specific star formation rates (sSFR ∼ 10^–9 yr^–1) are typically half that of other massive SFGs at the same epoch, and host X-ray luminous active galactic nuclei (AGNs) 30 times (∼30%) more frequently. These properties suggest that cSFGs are formed by gas-rich processes (mergers or disk-instabilities) that induce a compact starburst and feed an AGN, which, in turn, quench the star formation on dynamical timescales (few 10⁸ yr). The cSFGs are continuously being formed at z = 2-3 and fade to cQGs down to z ∼ 1.5. After this epoch, cSFGs are rare, thereby truncating the formation of new cQGs. Meanwhile, down to z = 1, existing cQGs continue to enlarge to match local QGs in size, while less-gas-rich mergers and other secular mechanisms shepherd (larger) SFGs as later arrivals to the red sequence. In summary, we propose two evolutionary tracks of QG formation: an early (z ∼> 2), formation path of rapidly quenched cSFGs fading into cQGs that later enlarge within the quiescent phase, and a late-arrival (z ∼< 2) path in which larger SFGs form extended QGs without passing through a compact state.

[en] We use GOODS and CANDELS images to identify progenitors of massive (M > 10¹⁰ M _☉) compact early-type galaxies (ETGs) at z ∼ 1.6. Because merging and accretion increase the size of the stellar component of galaxies, if the progenitors are among known star-forming galaxies, these must be compact themselves. We select candidate progenitors among compact Lyman-break galaxies at z ∼ 3 on the basis of their mass, star-formation rate (SFR), and central stellar density, and we find that these account for a large fraction of, and possibly all, compact ETGs at z ∼ 1.6. We find that the average far-UV spectral energy distribution (SED) of the candidates is redder than that of the non-candidates, but the optical and mid-IR SED are the same, implying that the redder UV of the candidates is inconsistent with larger dust obscuration and consistent with more evolved (aging) star formation. This is in line with other evidence suggesting that compactness is a sensitive predictor of passivity among high-redshift massive galaxies. We also find that the light distribution of both the compact ETGs and their candidate progenitors does not show any extended 'halos' surrounding the compact 'core,' both in individual images and in stacks. We argue that this is generally inconsistent with the morphology of merger remnants, even if gas rich, as predicted by N-body simulations. This suggests that the compact ETGs formed via highly dissipative, mostly gaseous accretion of units whose stellar components are very small and undetected in the Hubble Space Telescope images, with their stellar mass assembling in situ, and that they have not experienced any major merging until the epoch of observations at z ∼ 1.6.

[en] We examine the fraction of massive ($M_{\ast <!--\; ???\; -->}><!--\; >\; -->{10}^{10}{M}_{\odot <!--\; ???\; -->}$) compact star-forming galaxies (cSFGs) that host an active galactic nucleus (AGN) at $z\sim <!--\; ???\; -->2$. These cSFGs are likely the direct progenitors of the compact quiescent galaxies observed at this epoch, which are the first population of passive galaxies to appear in large numbers in the early Universe. We identify cSFGs that host an AGN using a combination of Hubble WFC3 imaging and Chandra X-ray observations in four fields: the Chandra Deep Fields, the Extended Groth Strip, and the UKIDSS Ultra Deep Survey field. We find that ${39.2}_{-<!--\; ???\; -->3.6}^{+3.9}\mathrm{\%<!--\; \%\; -->}$ (65/166) of cSFGs at $1.4<<!--\; <\; -->z<<!--\; <\; -->3.0$ host an X-ray detected AGN. This fraction is 3.2 times higher than the incidence of AGN in extended star-forming galaxies with similar masses at these redshifts. This difference is significant at the $6.2\mathrm{\sigma <!--\; ??\; -->}$ level. Our results are consistent with models in which cSFGs are formed through a dissipative contraction that triggers a compact starburst and concurrent growth of the central black hole. We also discuss our findings in the context of cosmological galaxy evolution simulations that require feedback energy to rapidly quench cSFGs. We show that the AGN fraction peaks precisely where energy injection is needed to reproduce the decline in the number density of cSFGs with redshift. Our results suggest that the first abundant population of massive quenched galaxies emerged directly following a phase of elevated supermassive black hole growth and further hints at a possible connection between AGN and the rapid quenching of star formation in these galaxies.