Evolution of galaxy morphology in the field and cluster environment since z ∼ 1

Abstract

The study of galaxy morphology can provide important information about how galaxies evolve. In this thesis, we study size and concentration of light profiles for &sim;15000 star-forming galaxies (SFGs, M_&lowast;<span>≳</span>10^9.5 M_{<span>☉</span>}) and &sim;5000 massive quiescent galaxies (QGs, M_&lowast;<span>≳</span>10¹⁰ M_{<span>☉</span>}) in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA region using CLAUDS+HSC-SSP griz bands at 0.1&lt;z&lt;0.9. We find a slow evolution in the characteristic sizes of SFGs, R_<em>e</em>&prop;(1+z)^&minus;0.45, which is consistent with the growth of their bulges. In contrast, the characteristic size of QGs grows faster, R_<em>e</em>&prop;(1+z)^&minus;1.06, driven by several physical processes including progenitor bias, adiabatic expansion, and merging. Analysis of 75 cluster galaxies does not show any significant difference from the field galaxies. However, a separate analysis of &sim;130 spectroscopically confirmed members of five cluster cores from the HST CLASH survey provide evidence for the effects of the densest environments on QG size.