Internal Seminar

From the low to the high mass end: a road trip through the territory of compact galaxies

By
Dra. Anna Ferré Mateu (ICCUB)
Date
Place
Zoom
ICCUB internal seminar
Pequeño pero matón" is a spanish saying meaning that even the smallest things can have an important contribution. This is the case of the rare and elusive compact galaxies. With galaxies smaller than 2kpc spanning the entire mass range (10^5-10^11Msun), this realm is populated by different families of galaxies: ultra-compact dwarfs, compact ellipticals and compact massive galaxies (or red nuggets). What are thus the mechanisms to create such objects over such a wide mass range? Do they follow the same channels of formation and scaling relations?
Although scarce and rare, we need to understand the nature of these tiny galaxies in order to have a complete census of the local Universe, so in this talk we will take a trip from the high- to the low-mass end of this realm of tiny galaxies. I will show that there is a strong dependence with galaxy mass, changing the nature of the compact galaxies scaling relations. On the massive end, compact galaxies seem to be formed intrinsically compact by avoiding the 'ex-situ' phase, while stripping becomes the relevant process to create them at the lower mass end. This is not only seen in their stellar populations, kinematics and morphologies, but also in the relations with the SMBHs in their centers.
NOTES