The Majority of Compact Massive Galaxies at z~2 are Disk Dominated

Understand

We investigate the stellar structure of massive, quiescent galaxies at z~2, based on Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 imaging from the Early Release Science program.

• Our sample of 14 galaxies has stellar masses of M* > 10^{10.8} Msol and photometric redshifts of 1.5 < z < 2.5.
• In agreement with previous work, their half-light radii are <2 kpc, much smaller than equally massive galaxies in the present-day universe.
• A significant subset of the sample appears highly flattened in projection, which implies, considering viewing angle statistics, that a significant fraction of the galaxies in our sample have pronounced disks.