Stellar Mass Profiles of Quiescent Galaxies in Different Environments at z similar to 0

Abstract

We present the stellar mass profiles of 147 isolated quiescent galaxies in very low-density environments (i.e., void regions) in the local universe (0.01 < z < 0.06) from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. These galaxies have stellar masses between 9.8 less than or similar to log(M-*/ M-circle dot) less than or similar to 11.2 and they represent similar to 15% of the whole galaxy population in the void regions down to M-r - -19. We do not find any isolated quiescent galaxies with log(M-*/M-circle dot) greater than or similar to 11.2. We compare the stellar mass profiles of these isolated quiescent galaxies with those of the profiles of stellar mass-matched samples of the quiescent galaxies in group and cluster environments. We find that, at a fixed mass, quiescent galaxies in voids have similar central (1 kpc) mass densities (Sigma(1)) and central velocity dispersions (sigma(1)) compared to their counterparts in groups and clusters. We show that quiescent galaxies in voids have at most 10%-25% smaller half-mass (and half-light) sizes compared to quiescent galaxies in groups and clusters. We conclude that for the intermediate stellar mass range of 10(10)-10(11) M-circle dot in the local universe, environmental mechanisms have no significant additional effect on the mass profiles of the quiescent galaxies.