Bibcode
Domínguez-Palmero, Lilian; Balcells, Marc
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 694, Issue 1, pp. L69-L73 (2009).
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3
2009
Citations
11
Refereed citations
10
Description
We analyze central surface brightness μ0, nuclear and
global colors of intermediate redshift disk galaxies. On an
apparent-diameter-limited sample of 398 galaxies from ACS/HST (Advanced
Camera for Surveys in the Hubble Space Telescope) The Great
Observatories Origins Deep Survey North (GOODS-N), we find 131 galaxies
with bulges and 214 without. Up to z ~ 0.8, blue, star-forming nuclei
are found in galaxies with low μ0 only; all
high-μ0 nuclei show red, passive colors, so that nuclear
and global (U - B) colors strongly correlate with central surface
brightness, as found in the local universe. At 0.8 < z < 1.3, a
fraction of ~27% of the high surface brightness nuclei show blue colors,
and positive nuclear color gradients. The associated nuclear star
formation must lead to bulge growth inside disks. Population modeling
suggests that such blue bulges evolve into local pseudobulges rather
than classical bulges. We do not find evidence for rejuvenation of
classical bulges at the sampled z. High luminosity active galactic
nuclei (AGNs) become common at 0.8 < z < 1.3, perhaps pointing to
a role of AGNs in the growth or star formation truncation of bulges.