Detectability of High Redshift Ellipticals in the Hubble Deep Field

Abstract

Relatively few intensively star-forming galaxies at redshifts z>2.5 have been found in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). This has been interpreted to imply a low space density of elliptical galaxies at high z, possibly due to a late (z<2.5) epoch of formation, or to dust obscuration of the ellipticals that are forming at z~3. I use HST UV (2300 Ang) images of 25 local early-type galaxies to investigate a third option, that ellipticals formed at z>4.5, and were fading passively by 2<z<4.5. Present-day early-types are faint and centrally concentrated in the UV. If ellipticals formed their stars in a short burst at z>4.5, and have faded passively to their present brightnesses at UV wavelengths, they would generally be below the HDF detection limits in any of its bands at z>2.5. Quiescent z ~ 3 ellipticals, if they exist, should turn up in sufficiently deep IR images.