Journal article
The first sample of spectroscopically confirmed ultra-compact massive galaxies in the Kilo Degree Survey
- Abstract:
- We present results from an ongoing investigation using the Kilo Degree Survey (KiDS) on the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) to provide a census of ultra-compact massive galaxies (UCMGs), defined as galaxies with stellar masses M* > 8 × 1010M⊙ and effective radii Re < 1.5 kpc. UCMGs, which are expected to have undergone very few merger events, provide a unique view on the accretion history of the most massive galaxies in the Universe. Over an effective sky area of nearly 330 deg2, we select UCMG candidates from KiDS multicolour images, which provide high quality structural parameters, photometric redshifts, and stellar masses. Our sample of ~1000 photometrically selected UCMGs at z < 0.5 represents the largest sample of UCMG candidates assembled to date over the largest sky area. In this paper, we present the first effort to obtain their redshifts using different facilities, starting with first results for 28 candidates with redshifts z < 0.5, obtained at NTT and TNG telescopes.We confirmed, as bona fide UCMGs, 19 out of the 28 candidates with new redshifts. A further 46 UCMG candidates are confirmed with literature spectroscopic redshifts (35 at z < 0.5), bringing the final cumulative sample of spectroscopically confirmed lower-z UCMGs to 54 galaxies, which is the largest sample at redshifts below 0.5. We use these spectroscopic redshifts to quantify systematic errors in our photometric selection, and use these to correct our UCMG number counts. We finally compare the results to independent data sets and simulations.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Access Document
- Files:
-
-
(Preview, Version of record, 6.7MB, Terms of use)
-
- Publisher copy:
- 10.1093/mnras/sty2564
Authors
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Journal:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society More from this journal
- Volume:
- 481
- Issue:
- 4
- Pages:
- 4728-4752
- Publication date:
- 2018-09-20
- Acceptance date:
- 2018-09-14
- DOI:
- EISSN:
-
1365-2966
- ISSN:
-
0035-8711
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
-
955197
- Local pid:
-
pubs:955197
- Deposit date:
-
2020-04-20
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Tortora, C et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2018
- Rights statement:
- © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.
- Notes:
- This is the publisher's version of the article. The final version is available online from Oxford University Press at: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/sty2564
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record