The Environmental Dependence of the Mass-Size Relation for the Most Massive Galaxies

  • Yoon, Yongmin (CEOU/Astronomy Program, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Seoul National University) ;
  • Im, Myungshin (CEOU/Astronomy Program, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Seoul National University)
  • Published : 2016.04.12

Abstract

We study the environmental dependence of the mass-size relation for the most massive early type galaxies (M>$10^{10.7}M_{\odot}$) in the redshift range 0.10~0.15. The sizes of galaxies are measured by non-parametric method. We find that galaxies more massive than $10^{11.1}M_{\odot}$ show the environmental dependence in the mass-size relation. The galaxies with M>$10^{11.1}M_{\odot}$ located in the densest, cluster like environment have larger sizes and extended surface brightness profiles than their counterparts located in a low dense environment. We also find that the environmental dependence of the mass-size relation is more significant for the brightest cluster galaxies (BCGs) than non-BCGs. We use the semi analytic galaxy formation simulation based on the Millennium 1 Simulation for interpretation. Our result can be explained with a hierarchical growth of the most massive galaxies through dissipation-less merger in dense environment.

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