Related papers: Relic galaxies: where are they?
As early as 10 Gyr ago, galaxies with more than 10^11 Msun in stars already existed. While most of these massive galaxies must have subsequently transformed through on-going star formation and mergers with other galaxies, a small fraction…
We study the preferred environments of $z \sim 0$ massive relic galaxies ($M_\star \gtrsim 10^{10}~\mathrm{M_\odot}$ galaxies with little or no growth from star formation or mergers since $z \sim 2$). Significantly, we carry out our…
According to the $\Lambda$CDM cosmology, present-day galaxies with stellar masses $M_\star>10^{11} {\rm M}_\odot$ should contain a sizable fraction of dark matter within their stellar body. Models indicate that in massive early-type…
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…
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…
Globular clusters (GCs) are some of the oldest bound structures in the Universe, holding clues to the earliest epochs of star formation and galaxy assembly. However, accurate age measurements of ancient clusters are challenging due to the…
Globular clusters (GCs) are thought to be ancient relics from the early formative phase of galaxies, although their physical origin remains uncertain. GCs are most numerous around massive elliptical galaxies, where they can exhibit a broad…
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…
Massive galaxies are thought to form in two phases: an initial, early collapse of gas and giant burst of central star formation, followed by the later accretion of material that builds up their stellar and dark matter haloes. The globular…
Recent results indicate that the compact lenticular galaxy NGC 1277 in the Perseus Cluster contains a black hole of approximately 10 billion solar masses. This far exceeds the expected mass of the central black hole in a galaxy of the…
We present the results of a deep photometric study of the outer halo of NGC 1275, the highly active cD galaxy at the center of the Perseus cluster. We find a modest excess of faint ($R > 22.5$) starlike objects in its halo, indicating a…
Near-ultraviolet (NUV) spectroscopic studies have suggested that passively evolving massive, early-type galaxies host sub-one percent fractions of young stars in their innermost regions. We shed light on the origin of these stars by…
According to optical stellar kinematics observations, an over-massive black hole candidate has been reported by van den Bosch et al. (2012) in the normal early-type galaxy NGC 1277. This galaxy is located in the central region of the…
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…
Relic galaxies are massive compact quiescent galaxies that formed at high-redshift and remained almost unchanged since then. In this work, we search for analogues to relic galaxies in the TNG50 cosmological simulations to understand relic…
Nearby massive compact elliptical galaxies (MCEGs) are strong candidates for relic galaxies (i.e. local analogs of red nuggets at high redshifts). It is expected that the globular cluster (GC) systems of relic galaxies are dominated by red…
We address the nature and origin of a spiral disk at the center of NGC 1275, the giant elliptical galaxy at the center of the Perseus cluster, that spans a radius of $\sim$$5\,\rm kpc$. By comparing stellar absorption lines measured in…
Rich clusters of galaxies are the most massive virialized systems known. Even though they contain only a small fraction of all galaxies, rich clusters provide a powerful tool for the study of galaxy formation, dark matter, large-scale…
Compact massive relic galaxies are a class of galaxies that exhibit characteristics suggesting they have remained largely unchanged since their initial formation, making them 'relics' of the early universe. These galaxies represent a…
I review the evidence from clusters and groups of galaxies for `relic' evidence of the high redshift universe. Contrary to the received wisdom, clusters are old. Their x-ray emitting intergalactic medium in massive clusters is a reservoir…