The SINS/zC-SINF Survey of z~2 Galaxy Kinematics: Rest-frame Morphology, Structure, and Colors from Near-infrared Hubble Space Telescope Imaging

TL;DR

This study uses HST imaging and VLT SINFONI spectroscopy to analyze the morphology, structure, and colors of 29 star-forming galaxies at z~2, revealing predominantly disk-like profiles with some bulge components and significant color gradients.

Contribution

It provides detailed rest-frame optical morphologies and kinematic data of z~2 galaxies, highlighting the prevalence of disk-like structures and the presence of bulges, with implications for galaxy evolution models.

Findings

Most galaxies have disk-like light profiles with Sersic index ~1.

About 40% of galaxies have a measurable bulge component.

Galaxies' sizes are slightly above the size-mass relation at z~2.

Abstract

We present the analysis of HST $J$- and $H$-band imaging for 29 galaxies on the star-forming main sequence at $z\sim2$, which have Adaptive Optics VLT SINFONI integral field spectroscopy from our SINS/zC-SINF program. The SINFONI H$\alpha$ data resolve the on-going star-formation and the ionized gas kinematics on scales of $1-2$ kpc; the near-IR images trace the galaxies' rest-frame optical morphologies and distributions of stellar mass in old stellar populations at a similar resolution. The global light profiles of most galaxies show disk-like properties well described by a single S\'ersic profile with $n\sim1$, with only $\sim15%$ requiring a high $n>3$ S\'ersic index, all more massive than $10^{10}M_\odot$. In bulge+disk fits, about $40%$ of galaxies have a measurable bulge component in the light profiles, with $\sim15%$ showing a substantial bulge-to-total ratio $B/T\ge0.3$. This is a lower limit to the frequency of $z\sim2$ massive galaxies with a developed bulge component in stellar mass because it could be hidden by dust and/or outshined by a thick actively star-forming disk component. The galaxies' rest-optical half-light radii range between $1-7$ kpc, with a median of 2.1 kpc, and lie slightly above the size-mass relation at these epochs reported in the literature. This is attributed to differences in sample selection and definitions of size and/or mass measurements. The $(u-g)_{rest}$ color gradient and scatter within individual $z\sim2$ massive galaxies with $\ge10^{11}M_\odot$ are as high as in $z=0$ low-mass, late-type galaxies, and are consistent with the high star-formation rates of massive $z\sim2$ galaxies being sustained at large galactocentric distances.