The Fundamental Plane and the evolution of the M/L ratio of early-type field galaxies up to z~1

Abstract

We analyse the Fundamental Plane (FP) of 26 strong gravitational lens galaxies with redshifts up to z~1, using tabulated data from Kochanek et al. (2000) and Rusin et al. (2003). The lens galaxies effectively form a mass-selected sample of early-type galaxies in environments of relatively low density. We analyse the FP and its evolution in the restframe Johnson B and Gunn r bands. Assuming that early-type galaxies are a homologous family, the FP then provides a direct measurement of the M/L ratio evolution. If we assume that the M/L ratios of field early-type galaxies evolve as power-laws, we find for the lens galaxies an evolution rate dlog(M/L)/dz of -0.62 +/-0.13 in restframe B, corresponding to a mean stellar formation redshift of <z*>=1.8 (-0.5/+1.4). This formation epoch does not differ significantly from that of cluster galaxies <z*cl>=2.0 (-0.2/+0.3), obtained by van Dokkum & Franx (2001) after correction for maximum progenitor bias. However, if we impose the constraint that lens and cluster galaxies that are of the same age have equal M/L ratios and we do not correct for progenitor bias, we find that the stellar populations of the lens galaxies are 10-15 % younger. We find that both the M/L ratios as well as the restframe colors of the lens galaxies show significant scatter. About half of the lens galaxies are consistent with an old cluster-like stellar populations, but the other galaxies are bluer and best fit by single burst models with younger stellar formation redshifts as low as z*~1. Moreover, the scatter in color is correlated with the scatter in M/L ratio. We interpret this as evidence of a significant age spread among the stellar populations of lens galaxies, whereas the ages of the stellar populations of the cluster galaxies are well approximated by a single formation epoch.