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We present an analysis of the stellar populations of 102 visually selected early-type galaxies (ETGs) with spectroscopic redshifts (0.35 ≲ z ≲ 1.5) from observations in the Early Release Science program with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the

We present an analysis of the stellar populations of 102 visually selected early-type galaxies (ETGs) with spectroscopic redshifts (0.35 ≲ z ≲ 1.5) from observations in the Early Release Science program with the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). We fit one- and two-component synthetic stellar models to the ETGs UV-optical-near-IR spectral energy distributions and find that a large fraction (∼40%) are likely to have experienced a minor (fYC ≲ 10% of stellar mass) burst of recent (tYC ≲ 1 Gyr) star formation. The measured age and mass fraction of the young stellar populations do not strongly trend with measurements of galaxy morphology. We note that massive (M > 1010.5M☼) recent star-forming ETGs appear to have larger sizes. Furthermore, high-mass, quiescent ETGs identified with likely companions populate a distinct region in the size-mass parameter space, in comparison with the distribution of massive ETGs with evidence of recent star formation (RSF). We conclude that both mechanisms of quenching star formation in disk-like ETGs and (gas-rich, minor) merger activity contribute to the formation of young stars and the size-mass evolution of intermediate redshift ETGs. The number of ETGs for which we have both HST WFC3 panchromatic (especially UV) imaging and spectroscopically confirmed redshifts is relatively small, therefore, a conclusion about the relative roles of both of these mechanisms remains an open question.

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Title
  • Early-Type Galaxies at Intermediate Redshift Observed With Hubble Space Telescope WFC3: Perspectives on Recent Star Formation
Date Created
2014-12-01
Resource Type
  • Text
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    Identifier
    • Digital object identifier: 10.1088/0004-637X/796/2/101
    • Identifier Type
      International standard serial number
      Identifier Value
      0004-637X
    • Identifier Type
      International standard serial number
      Identifier Value
      1538-4357
    Note
    • Copyright IOP Publishing. This is the authors' final, peer-reviewed manuscript. Rutkowski, Michael J., Jeong, Hyunjin, Cohen, Seth H., Kaviraj, Sugata, Windhorst, Rogier A., Ryan, Russell E., Jr., Koekemoer, Anton, Yi, Sukyoung K., Hathi, Nimish P., & Dopita, Michael A. (2014). EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES AT INTERMEDIATE REDSHIFT OBSERVED WITH HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE WFC3: PERSPECTIVES ON RECENT STAR FORMATION. ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 796(2), 0-0. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/796/2/101. The final version as published can be viewed online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/796/2/101

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    Rutkowski, Michael J., Jeong, Hyunjin, Cohen, Seth H., Kaviraj, Sugata, Windhorst, Rogier A., Ryan, Russell E., Jr., Koekemoer, Anton, Yi, Sukyoung K., Hathi, Nimish P., & Dopita, Michael A. (2014). EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES AT INTERMEDIATE REDSHIFT OBSERVED WITH HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE WFC3: PERSPECTIVES ON RECENT STAR FORMATION. ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, 796(2), 0-0. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/796/2/101

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