Adaptive Optics Rest-Frame V-band Imaging of Lyman Break Galaxies at z~3: High-surface Density Disk-like Galaxies ?

TL;DR

This study uses adaptive optics K-band imaging to analyze the morphology of z~3 Lyman Break Galaxies, revealing disk-like structures with high surface stellar mass densities, differing from local disk galaxies.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed rest-frame V-band morphological analysis of z~3 LBGs using AO-assisted imaging, highlighting their disk-like profiles and high surface densities.

Findings

LBGs brighter than Mv* have larger half-light radii than fainter ones.

Most LBGs are well-fitted by Sersic profiles with n<2, indicating disk-like structures.

LBGs have higher surface brightness and stellar mass density compared to local disk galaxies.

Abstract

In order to reveal the rest-frame V-band morphology of galaxies at z~3, we conducted AO-assisted K-band imaging observations of z~3 LBGs with Mv*-0.5 to Mv*+3.0 mag. LBGs brighter than Mv* have larger rHL (0.40") than the fainter LBGs (0.23") on average, and there is no bright LBGs with a small rHL. The LBGs brighter than Mv* have red rest-frame U-V colors (average of 0.2 mag) and most of the fainter LBGs show blue rest-frame U-V colors (average of -0.4 mag). The K-band peaks of some of the LBGs brighter than K=22.0 mag show significant shift from those in the optical images. The images of all but one of the LBGs with K<21.5 mag are fitted well with Sersic profile with n index less than 2, similar to disk galaxies in the local universe. Assuming that the LBGs have a disk-shape, we compared their size-luminosity and size-stellar mass relation with those of z=0 and z=1 disk galaxies. The LBGs are brighter than z=0 and z=1 disk galaxies at the same effective radius. The rest-frame V-band surface brightness of the LBGs are 2.2-2.9 mag and 1.2-1.9 mag brighter than the disk galaxies at z=0 and z=1, respectively. The size-stellar mass relation of the LBGs shows that the effective radii of the LBGs do not depend on their stellar mass. For the LBGs brighter than Mv*, the average surface stellar mass density is 3-6 times larger than those of the z=0 and z=1 disk galaxies. We also examine the profiles of the serendipitously observed DRGs. They are also fitted with the Sersic profiles with n<2. The implications of the dominance of n<2 population among galaxies at z~3 and the presence of the high surface stellar mass density disk systems are discussed.