Luminosity Evolution of Early-Type Galaxies to [CLC][ITAL]z[/ITAL][/CLC] = 0.83: Constraints on Formation Epoch and Ω

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Abstract
We present deep Keck telescope spectroscopy of eight galaxies in the luminous X-ray cluster MS 1054-03 at z=0.83. The data are combined with imaging observations from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The spectroscopic data are used to measure the internal kinematics of the galaxies, and the HST data are used to measure their structural parameters. Six galaxies have early-type spectra, and two have "E+A" spectra. The galaxies with early-type spectra define a tight fundamental plane (FP) relation. The evolution of the mass-to-light ratio is derived from the FP. The M/L ratio evolves as ΔlogM/LB ∝ -0.40z (Ωm=0.3, ΩΛ=0). The observed evolution of the M/L ratio provides a combined constraint on the formation redshift of the stars, the initial mass function (IMF), and cosmological parameters. For a Salpeter IMF (x=2.35), we find that zform > 2.8 and Ωm < 0.86 with 95% confidence. The constraint on the formation redshift is weaker if ΩΛ > 0: zform > 1.7 if Ωm=0.3 and ΩΛ=0.7. At present, the limiting factor in constraining zform and Ω from the observed luminosity evolution of early-type galaxies is the poor understanding of the IMF. We find that if Ωm=1, the IMF must be significantly steeper than the Salpeter IMF (x > 2.6).
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