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Published June 10, 2014 | Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

Spectroscopic Confirmation of the Rich z = 1.80 Galaxy Cluster JKCS 041 using the WFC3 Grism: Environmental Trends in the Ages and Structure of Quiescent Galaxies

Abstract

We present Hubble Space Telescope imaging and grism spectroscopy in the field of the distant galaxy cluster JKCS 041 using the Wide Field Camera 3. We confirm that JKCS 041 is a rich cluster and derive a redshift z = 1.80 via the spectroscopic identification of 19 member galaxies, of which 15 are quiescent. These are centered upon diffuse X-ray emission seen by the Chandra observatory. As JKCS 041 is the most distant known cluster with such a large, spectroscopically confirmed quiescent population, it provides a unique opportunity to study the effect of the environment on galaxy properties at early epochs. We construct high-quality composite spectra of the quiescent cluster members that reveal prominent Balmer and metallic absorption lines. Using these, we measure the mean stellar ages in two bins of stellar mass. The quiescent cluster members' ages agree remarkably closely with that inferred by Whitaker et al. for similarly selected samples in the field, supporting the idea that the cluster environment is more efficient at truncating star formation while not having a strong effect on the mean epoch of quenching. We find some evidence (90% confidence) for a lower fraction of disk-like quiescent systems in JKCS 041 compared to a sample of coeval field galaxies drawn from the CANDELS survey. Taking this into account, we do not detect a significant difference between the mass–radius relations of the quiescent JKCS 041 members and our z ~ 1.8 field sample. Finally, we demonstrate how differences in the morphological mixture of quenched systems can complicate measures of the environmental dependence of size growth.

Additional Information

© 2014 American Astronomical Society. Received 2013 October 15; accepted 2014 April 1; published 2014 May 21. We thank the referee for a detailed report. It is a pleasure to acknowledge insightful conversations with Marc Huertas- Company, John Mulchaey, and Sirio Belli. We also thank Kate Whitaker, Rik Williams and the CSI team, Alessandro Rettura, Andrew Zirm, and Casey Papovich for sharing their data in an electronic format, as well as Nor Pirzkal and Beth Perriello for their assistance in planning and executing the HST observations. Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. These observations are associated with program number GO-12927, which was supported under NASA contract NAS 5-26555. A.R. acknowledges financial contribution from the agreement ASI-INAF I/009/10/0 and from Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera. Based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/IRFU, at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Science de l'Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii. This work is based in part on data products produced at Terapix available at the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre as part of the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey, a collaborative project of NRC and CNRS.

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Published - 0004-637X_788_1_51.pdf

Submitted - 1310.6754v2.pdf

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August 22, 2023
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