Related papers: Massive relic galaxies prefer dense environments
Relic galaxies are thought to be the progenitors of high-redshift red nuggets that for some reason missed the channels of size growth and evolved passively and undisturbed since the first star formation burst (at $z>2$). These local…
The number of present-day massive galaxies that has survived untouched since their formation at high-z is an important observational constraint to the hierarchical galaxy formation models. Using three different semianalytical models based…
Relic galaxies, the oldest ultra-compact massive galaxies (UCMGs), contain almost exclusively "pristine" stars formed during an intense star formation (SF) burst at high redshift. As such, they allow us to study in detail the early…
We confirm two new local massive relic galaxies, i.e. untouched survivors of the early universe massive population: Mrk1216 and PGC032873. Both show early and peaked formation events within very short timescales (<1 Gyr) and thus old mean…
Massive Ultracompact Galaxies (MUGs) are common at z=2-3, but very rare in the nearby Universe. Simulations predict that the few surviving MUGs should reside in galaxy clusters, whose large relative velocities prevent them from merging,…
Relic galaxies are massive, compact, quiescent objects observed in the local Universe that have not experienced any significant interaction episodes or merger events since about $z = 2$, remaining relatively unaltered since their formation.…
Massive quiescent galaxies at z>1 have been found to have small physical sizes, hence to be superdense. Several mechanisms, including minor mergers, have been proposed for increasing galaxy sizes from high- to low-z. We search for…
The finding that massive galaxies grow with cosmic time fired the starting gun for the search of objects which could have survived up to the present day without suffering substantial changes (neither in their structures, neither in their…
We present a study of galaxy sizes in the local Universe as a function of galaxy environment, comparing clusters and the general field. Galaxies with radii and masses comparable to high-z massive and compact galaxies represent 4.4% of all…
Massive compact galaxies seem to be more common at high redshift than in the local universe, especially in denser environments. To investigate the fate of such massive galaxies identified at z~2 we analyse the evolution of their properties…
To study how the environment can influence the relation between stellar mass and effective radius of nearby galaxies (z < 0.12), we use a mass-complete sample extracted from the NYU-Value Added Catalogue. This sample contains almost 232000…
Under the $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmological models, massive galaxies are expected to be larger in denser environments through frequent hierarchical mergers with other galaxies. Yet, observational studies of low-redshift…
We investigate the environments of massive quiescent galaxies at 3 < z < 5 using the GAlaxy Evolution and Assembly (GAEA) theoretical model. We select galaxies with stellar mass ~10^10.8 Msun and specific star formation rate below 0.3x…
Red ultra-compact massive galaxies, called red nuggets were formed at high redshifts ($\rm{z\sim2-3}$). Survivors of red nuggets, known as relics, observed at lower redshifts ($\rm{z<2}$) are believed to remain almost unchanged since their…
We search for massive and compact galaxies (superdense galaxies, hereafter SDGs) at z=0.03-0.11 in the Padova-Millennium Galaxy and Group Catalogue, a spectroscopically complete sample representative of the local Universe general field…
We create a catalogue of simulated fossil groups and study their properties, in particular the merging histories of their first-ranked galaxies. We compare the simulated fossil group properties with those of both simulated non-fossil and…
The properties of massive and compact early-type galaxies provide important constraints on early galaxy formation. Among these, massive relic galaxies, characterized by old stellar populations and minimal late-time accretion, are considered…
Massive quiescent galaxies have much smaller physical sizes at high redshift than today. The strong evolution of galaxy size may be caused by progenitor bias, major and minor mergers, adiabatic expansion, and/or renewed star formation, but…
We present a statistical study of the environments of massive galaxies in four redshift bins between z=0.04 and z=1.6, using data from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the NEWFIRM Medium Band Survey (NMBS). We measure the projected…
We study the growth of massive galaxies from z=2 to the present using data from the NEWFIRM Medium Band Survey. The sample is selected at a constant number density of n=2x10^-4 Mpc^-3, so that galaxies at different epochs can be compared in…