On the nature of the Extremely Red Galaxies

Abstract

We present a method based on two broad-band colors to investigate the nature of the Extremely Red Objects (EROs), i.e., the galaxies selected to have very red optical-to-infrared colors. Dusty starburst and old ellipticals at redshifts between 1 and 2 appear to occupy two different regions of the J-K vs. I-K color diagram, allowing for an easy classification. This diagnostic was applied to a complete sample of 57 EROs: the two populations are found to be present in the sample in similar abundances. The cosmic star formation density in the dusty starbursts is found to be of the order of that in the Lyman-Break Galaxies.