TY - JOUR
T1 - Detectability of high-redshift elliptical galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field
AU - Maoz, Dan
N1 - Funding Information:
I thank Piero Madau, Gerhardt Meurer, Amiel Sternberg, and the anonymous referee for valuable comments. This work was supported by grant 94-00300 from the U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation and by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation.
PY - 1997
Y1 - 1997
N2 - Relatively few intensively star-forming galaxies at redshifts of z > 2.5 have been found in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). This has been interpreted to imply a low space density of elliptical galaxies at high z, possibly due to a late (z < 2.5) epoch of formation or to dust obscuration of the ellipticals that are forming at z ∼ 3. I use Hubble Space Telescope UV (∼2300 Å) images of 25 local early-type galaxies to investigate a third option, that ellipticals formed at z > 4.5 and were fading passively by 2 < z < 4.5. Present-day early-type galaxies are faint and centrally concentrated in the UV. If elliptical galaxies formed their stars in a short burst at z > 4.5 and have faded passively to their present brightnesses at UV wavelengths, they would generally be below the HDF detection limits in any of its bands at z > 2.5. Quiescent z ∼ 3 ellipticals, if they exist, should turn up in sufficiently deep IR images.
AB - Relatively few intensively star-forming galaxies at redshifts of z > 2.5 have been found in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). This has been interpreted to imply a low space density of elliptical galaxies at high z, possibly due to a late (z < 2.5) epoch of formation or to dust obscuration of the ellipticals that are forming at z ∼ 3. I use Hubble Space Telescope UV (∼2300 Å) images of 25 local early-type galaxies to investigate a third option, that ellipticals formed at z > 4.5 and were fading passively by 2 < z < 4.5. Present-day early-type galaxies are faint and centrally concentrated in the UV. If elliptical galaxies formed their stars in a short burst at z > 4.5 and have faded passively to their present brightnesses at UV wavelengths, they would generally be below the HDF detection limits in any of its bands at z > 2.5. Quiescent z ∼ 3 ellipticals, if they exist, should turn up in sufficiently deep IR images.
KW - Cosmology: observations
KW - Galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD
KW - Galaxies: evolution
KW - Galaxies: formation
KW - Ultraviolet: galaxies
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=21944442165&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/311027
DO - 10.1086/311027
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AN - SCOPUS:21944442165
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 490
SP - L135-L139
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2 PART II
ER -