Related papers: Modeling the red sequence: Hierarchical growth yet…
In a hierarchical universe, mergers may be an important mechanism not only in increasing the mass of galaxies but also in driving the color and morphological evolution of galaxies. We use a large sample of ~1000 simulated galaxies of…
Some recent observations seem to disagree with hierarchical theories of galaxy formation about the role played by major mergers in the late buildup of massive E-S0's. We re-address this question by analysing the morphology, structural…
The characteristic size of early-type galaxies (ETGs) of given stellar mass is observed to increase significantly with cosmic time, from redshift z>2 to the present. A popular explanation for this size evolution is that ETGs grow through…
We have examined in detail the morphologies of seven z~1.5 passively evolving luminous red galaxies using high resolution HST NICMOS and ACS imaging data. Almost all of these galaxies appear to be relaxed systems, with smooth morphologies…
Understanding the details of how the red sequence is built is a key question in galaxy evolution. What are the relative roles of gas-rich vs. dry mergers, major vs. minor mergers or galaxy mergers vs. gas accretion? In Wild et al. 2009 we…
The link between massive red galaxies in the local Universe and star-forming galaxies at high redshift is investigated with a semi-analytic model that has proven successful in many ways, e.g. explaining the galaxy colour-magnitude…
We use a sample of ~16,000 non-emission line galaxies from the SDSS to investigate the physical parameters underlying the well-known color-magnitude and color-sigma relations. Galaxies are sorted in terms of velocity dispersions (sigma),…
Morphological and spectroscopic studies of high redshift clusters indicate that a significant fraction of present-day early-type galaxies was transformed from star forming galaxies at z<1. On the other hand, the slow luminosity evolution of…
The existence of massive galaxies with strongly suppressed star formation at z~2.3, identified in a previous paper, suggests that a red sequence may already be in place beyond z=2. In order to test this hypothesis, we study the rest-frame…
We use stellar mass functions to study the properties and the significance of quenching through major galaxy mergers. In addition to SDSS DR7 and Galaxy Zoo 1 data, we use samples of visually selected major galaxy mergers and post merger…
We investigate the development of the red sequence (RS) of cluster galaxies by using a semi-analytic model of galaxy formation. Results show good agreement between the general trend of the simulated RS and the observed relation in…
The mass and structural evolution of massive galaxies is one of the hottest topics in galaxy formation. This is because it may reveal invaluable insights into the still debated evolutionary processes governing the growth and assembly of…
Aims: We present a new method that uses luminosity or stellar mass functions combined with clustering measurements to select samples of galaxies at different redshifts likely to follow a progenitor-to-descendant relationship. As the method…
We present deep I and z' imaging of the colour-selected cluster RzCS 052 and study the color-magnitude relation of this cluster, its scatter, the morphological distribution on the red sequence, the luminosity and stellar mass functions of…
The growth of galaxies is a key problem in understanding the structure and evolution of the universe. Galaxies grow their stellar mass by a combination of star formation and mergers, with a relative importance that is redshift dependent.…
The contribution of major mergers to galaxy mass assembly along cosmic time is an important ingredient to the galaxy evolution scenario. We aim to measure the evolution of the merger rate for both luminosity/mass selected galaxy samples and…
The increasing abundance of passive "red-sequence" galaxies since z=1-2 is mirrored by a coincident rise in the number of galaxies with spheroidal morphologies. In this paper, however, we show that in detail the correspondence between…
A common assumption is that galaxies fall in two distinct regions on a plot of specific star-formation rate (SSFR) versus galaxy stellar mass: a star-forming Galaxy Main Sequence (GMS) and a separate region of `passive' or `red and dead…
The evolution of galaxy merger rates and its impact on galaxy properties have been studied intensively over the last decade. It becomes clear now that various types of mergers, i.e. gas-rich (wet), gas-poor (dry), or mixed mergers, affect…
Massive quiescent galaxies at high redshift are significantly more compact than their present-day counterparts. We investigate the roles, in determining this evolution, of major and minor mergers, and of the accretion of diffuse envelopes…