CENTRAL STELLAR MASS DEFICITS IN THE BULGES OF LOCAL LENTICULAR GALAXIES, AND THE CONNECTION WITH COMPACT z ∼ 1.5 GALAXIES

We have used the full radial extent of images from the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 to extract surface brightness profiles from a sample of six, local lenticular galaxy candidates. We have modeled these profiles using a core-Sersic bulge plus an exponential disk model. Our fast rotating lenticular disk galaxies with bulge magnitudes M-V less than or similar to -21.30 mag have central stellar deficits, suggesting that these bulges may have formed from dry merger events involving supermassive black holes (BHs) while their surrounding disk was subsequently built up, perhaps via cold gas accretion scenarios. The central stellar mass deficits M-def are roughly 0.5-2 M-BH (BH mass), rather than similar to 10-20 M-BH as claimed from some past studies, which is in accord with core-Sersic model mass deficit measurements in elliptical galaxies. Furthermore, these bulges have Sersic indices n similar to 3, half-light radii R-e < 2 kpc and masses >10(11) M-circle dot, and therefore appear to be descendants of the compact galaxies reported at z similar to 1.5-2. Past studies which have searched for these local counterparts by using single-component galaxy models to provide the z similar to 0 size comparisons have overlooked these dense, compact, and massive bulges in today's early-type disk galaxies. This evolutionary scenario not only accounts for what are today generally old bulges-which must be present in z similar to 1.5 images-residing in what are generally young disks, but it eliminates the uncomfortable suggestion of a factor of three to five growth in size for the compact, z similar to 1.5 galaxies that are known to possess infant disks.