CANDELS: THE PROGENITORS OF COMPACT QUIESCENT GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2

We combine high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope/WFC3 images with multi-wavelength photometry to track the evolution of structure and activity of massive galaxies at redshifts z = 1.4-3 in two fields of the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey. We detect compact, star-forming galaxies (cSFGs) whose number densities, masses, sizes, and star formation rates (SFRs) qualify them as likely progenitors of compact, quiescent, massive galaxies (cQGs) at z = 1.5-3. In summary, we propose two evolutionary tracks of QG formation: an early (z [> or ~] 2), formation path of rapidly quenched cSFGs fading into cQGs that later enlarge within the quiescent phase, and a late-arrival (z [< o ~] 2) path in which larger SFGs form extended QGs without passing through a compact state.