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Evolutionary paths of the most massive galaxies since z ~ 2

Abstract

Observations have shown that massive galaxies at high redshift have much smaller sizes than galaxies of similar mass today. The mean stellar density of such objects was almost two orders of magnitude higher than the ones we measured in the most massive nearby galaxies, reaching, in some cases, densities similar to those observed in globular clusters. What is the nature of these objects? And, how these objects have been transformed into the present population of massive galaxies? We will summarize the recent findings our group has done on this topic. In particular, we will focus on our search for finding relics of these compact galaxies in the nearby universe, and the effort we have done for measuring the evolution of the velocity dispersion of these galaxies in the last 10 Gyr. The implications of this research within the galaxy formation scenario will be discussed.