title: Galaxy evolution. Evidence for mature bulges and an inside-out quenching phase 3 billion years after the Big Bang.
abstract: Most present-day galaxies with stellar masses ≥10(11) solar masses show no ongoing star formation and are dense spheroids. Ten billion years ago, similarly massive galaxies were typically forming stars at rates of hundreds solar masses per year. It is debated how star formation ceased, on which time scales, and how this "quenching" relates to the emergence of dense spheroids. We measured stellar mass and star-formation rate surface density distributions in star-forming galaxies at redshift 2.2 with ~1-kiloparsec resolution. We find that, in the most massive galaxies, star formation is quenched from the inside out, on time scales less than 1 billion years in the inner regions, up to a few billion years in the outer disks. These galaxies sustain high star-formation activity at large radii, while hosting fully grown and already quenched bulges in their cores.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland. sandro.tacchella@phys.ethz.ch marcella.carollo@phys.ethz.ch.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tacchella
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland. sandro.tacchella@phys.ethz.ch marcella.carollo@phys.ethz.ch.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Carollo
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Renzini
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: N M
authors.initials: NM
authors.lastname: Förster Schreiber
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lang
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wuyts
authors.affiliation: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Arcetri, Largo Enrico Fermi 5, I-50125 Firenze, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Cresci
authors.affiliation: Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem 91904, Israel.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dekel
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany. Department of Astronomy, Campbell Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA. Department of Physics, Le Conte Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Genzel
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lilly
authors.affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF) Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, Vicolo dell Osservatorio 5, I-35122 Padova, Italy.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mancini
authors.affiliation: Department of Astronomy, Campbell Hall, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Newman
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Onodera
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1547, USA.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shapley
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Giessenbachstrasse 1, D-85748 Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tacconi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Institute for Astronomy, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Woo
authors.affiliation: INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, Via Ranzani 1, I-40127 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zamorani