Abstract
We study the morphologies and sizes of galaxies at z>5 using high-resolution
cosmological zoom-in simulations from the Feedback In Realistic Environments
project. The galaxies show a variety of morphologies, from compact to clumpy to
irregular. The simulated galaxies have more extended morphologies and larger
sizes when measured using rest-frame optical B-band light than rest-frame UV
light; sizes measured from stellar mass surface density are even larger. The UV
morphologies are usually dominated by several small, bright young stellar
clumps that are not always associated with significant stellar mass. The B-band
light traces stellar mass better than the UV, but it can also be biased by the
bright clumps. At all redshifts, galaxy size correlates with stellar
mass/luminosity with large scatter. The half-light radii range from 0.01 to 0.2
arcsec (0.05-1 kpc physical) at fixed magnitude. At z>5, the size of galaxies
at fixed stellar mass/luminosity evolves as (1+z)^-m, with m~1-2. For
galaxies less massive than M_star~10^8 M_sun, the ratio of the half-mass radius
to the halo virial radius is ~10% and does not evolve significantly at z=5-10;
this ratio is typically 1-5% for more massive galaxies. A galaxy's öbserved"
size decreases dramatically at shallower surface brightness limits. This effect
may account for the extremely small sizes of z>5 galaxies measured in the
Hubble Frontier Fields. We provide predictions for the cumulative light
distribution as a function of surface brightness for typical galaxies at z=6.
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