The zCOSMOS redshift survey: Evolution of the light in bulges and discs since z ~ 0.8

DOI: 
10.1051/0004-6361/201423699
Publication date: 
01/04/2014
Main author: 
Tasca L.A.M.
IAA authors: 
Perez Montero E.
Authors: 
Tasca L.A.M., Tresse L., Le Fèvre O., Ilbert O., Lilly S.J., Zamorani G., López-Sanjuan C., Ho L.C., Bardelli S., Cattaneo A., Cucciati O., Farrah D., Iovino A., Koekemoer A.M., Liu C.T., Massey R., Renzini A., Taniguchi Y., Welikala N., Zucca E., Carollo C.M., Contini T., Kneib J.-P., Mainieri V., Scodeggio M., Bolzonella M., Bongiorno A., Caputi K., De La Torre S., Franzetti P., Garilli B., Guzzo L., Kampczyk P., Knobel C., Kovač K., Lamareille F., Le Borgne J.-F., Le Brun V., Maier C., Mignoli M., Pello R., Peng Y., Perez Montero E., Rich R.M., Tanaka M., Vergani D., Bordoloi R., Cappi A., Cimatti A., Coppa G., McCracken H.J., Moresco M., Pozzetti L., Sanders D., Sheth K.
Journal: 
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Publication type: 
Article
Volume: 
564
Pages: 
Number: 
L12
Abstract: 
studied the chronology of galactic bulge and disc formation by analysing the relative contributions of these components to the B-band restframe luminosity density at different epochs. We present the first estimate of the evolution of the fraction of rest-frame B-band light in galactic bulges and discs since redshift z ~ 0.8. We performed a bulge-to-disc decomposition of HST/ACS images of 3266 galaxies in the zCOSMOSbright survey with spectroscopic redshifts in the range 0.7 = z = 0.9. We find that the fraction of B-band light in bulges and discs is (26 ± 4)% and (74 ± 4)%, respectively. When compared with rest-frame B-band measurements of galaxies in the local Universe in the same mass range (109 M⊙ ≲ M ≲ 1011.5 M⊙), we find that the B-band light in discs decreases by ~30% from z ~ 0.7-0.9 to z ~ 0, while the light from the bulge increases by ~30% over the same period of time. We interpret this evolution as the consequence of star formation and mass assembly processes, as well as morphological transformation, which gradually shift stars formed at half the age of the Universe from star-forming late-type/irregular galaxies to earlier types and ultimately into spheroids. © 2014 EDP.
Database: 
WOK
SCOPUS
ADS
URL: 
https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/#abs/2014A&A...564L..12T/abstract
ADS Bibcode: 
2014A&A...564L..12T
Keywords: 
Galaxies: bulges; Galaxies: distances and redshifts; Galaxies: evolution; Galaxies: fundamental parameters; Galaxies: luminosity function; mass function