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Published February 10, 2011 | Published
Journal Article Open

Interpreting the Evolution of the Size-Luminosity Relation for Disk Galaxies from Redshift 1 to the Present

Abstract

A sample of very high resolution cosmological disk galaxy simulations is used to investigate the evolution of galaxy disk sizes back to redshift 1 within the ΛCDM cosmology. Artificial images in the rest-frame B band are generated, allowing for a measurement of disk scale lengths using surface brightness profiles as observations would, and avoiding any assumption that light must follow mass as previous models have assumed. We demonstrate that these simulated disks are an excellent match to the observed magnitude-size relation for both local disks and for disks at z = 1 in the magnitude/mass range of overlap. We disentangle the evolution seen in the population as a whole from the evolution of individual disk galaxies. In agreement with observations, our simulated disks undergo roughly 1.5 mag arcsec^(–2) of surface brightness dimming since z = 1. We find evidence that evolution in the magnitude-size plane varies by mass, such that galaxies with M_* ≥ 10^9 M_⊙ undergo more evolution in size than luminosity, while dwarf galaxies tend to evolve potentially more in luminosity. The disks grow in such a way as to stay on roughly the same stellar-mass-size relation with time. Finally, due to an evolving stellar-mass-star-formation-rate (SFR) relation, a galaxy at a given stellar mass (or size) at z = 1 will reside in a more massive halo and have a higher SFR, and thus a higher luminosity, than a counterpart of the same stellar mass at z = 0.

Additional Information

© 2011 American Astronomical Society. Received 2010 August 9; accepted 2010 December 1; published 2011 January 19. We thank S. Miller and R. Ellis for the use of their z = 1 disk scale length data. A.M.B. acknowledges support from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. A.R.S. was supported by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation. F.G. and T.R.Q. were funded by NSF AST-0908499. F.G. acknowledges support from a Theodore Dunham grant, HST GO-1125, NSF grant AST- 0607819, and NASA ATP NNX08AG84G. P.J. acknowledges support from the W. M. Keck Foundation. Simulations were run at TACC, ARSC, and NAS. C.B.A.B. acknowledges the support of the UK's Science & Technology Facilities Council (STFC Grant ST/F002432/1).

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