Cosmic evolution of stellar disk truncations: from z = 1 to the Local Universe

Trujillo, Ignacio; Azzollini, Ruyman; Bakos, Judit; Beckman, John; Pohlen, Michael
Bibliographical reference

The Galaxy Disk in Cosmological Context, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, IAU Symposium, Volume 254. Edited by J. Andersen, J. Bland-Hawthorn, and B. Nordström, p. 127-132

Advertised on:
3
2009
Number of authors
5
IAC number of authors
4
Citations
3
Refereed citations
3
Description
We present our recent results on the cosmic evolution of the outskirts of disk galaxies. In particular we focus on disk-like galaxies with stellar disk truncations. Using UDF, GOODS and SDSS data we show how the position of the break (i.e. a direct estimator of the size of the stellar disk) evolves with time since z~1. Our findings agree with an evolution on the radial position of the break by a factor of 1.3 ± 0.1 in the last 8 Gyr for galaxies with similar stellar masses. We also present radial color gradients and how they evolve with time. At all redshifts we find a radial inside-out bluing reaching a minimum at the position of the break radius, this minimum is followed by a reddening outwards. Our results constraint several galaxy disk formation models and favour a scenario where stars are formed inside the break radius and are relocated in the outskirts of galaxies through secular processes.