A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal

INSPIRE: INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics – V. A catalogue of ultra-compact massive galaxies outside the local Universe and their degree of relicness




AuthorsC. Spiniello, G. D'Ago, L. Coccato, J. Hartke, C. Tortora, A. Ferré-Mateu, C. Pulsoni, M. Cappellari, M. Maksymowicz-Maciata, M. Arnaboldi, D. Bevacqua, A. Gallazzi, K. L. Hunt, La F. Barbera, I. Martín-Navarro, R. N. Napolitano, M. Radovich, P. Saracco, D. Scognamiglio, M. Spavone, S. Zibetti

PublisherOxford University Press

Publication year2024

JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Journal acronymMNRAS

Volume527

Issue3

First page 8793

Last page8811

eISSN1365-2966

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stad3703

Web address https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/527/3/8793/7455892

Self-archived copy’s web addresshttps://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/181959833


Abstract

This paper presents the third data release of the INvestigating Stellar Population In RElics (INSPIRE) project, comprising 52 ultra-compact massive galaxies (UCMGs) observed with the X-Shooter spectrograph. We measure integrated stellar velocity dispersion, [Mg/Fe] abundances, ages, and metallicities for all the INSPIRE objects. We thus infer star formation histories and confirm the existence of a degree of relicness (DoR), defined in terms of the fraction of stellar mass formed by z = 2, the time at which a galaxy has assembled 75 per cent of its mass, and the final assembly time. Objects with a high DoR assembled their stellar mass at early epochs, while low-DoR objects show a non-negligible fraction of later formed populations and hence a spread in ages and metallicities. A higher DoR correlates with larger [Mg/Fe], supersolar metallicity, and larger velocity dispersion values. The 52 UMCGs span a large range of DoR from 0.83 to 0.06, with 38 of them having formed more than 75  per cent of their mass by z = 2. Of these, nine are extreme relics (DoR>0.7), since they formed the totality (⁠⁠> 99 per cent) of their stellar mass by redshift z = 2. The remaining 14 UCMGs cannot be considered relics, as they are characterized by more extended star formation histories. With INSPIRE we built the first sizeable sample of relics outside the local Universe, up to z ∼ 0.4, increasing the number of confirmed relics by a factor of >10, and opening up an important window to explain the mass assembly of massive galaxies in the high-z Universe.


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