Hubble space telescope morphologies of z ∼ 2 dust obscured galaxies. I. Power-law sources

We present high-spatial resolution optical and near-infrared imaging obtained using the ACS, WFPC2, and NICMOS cameras aboard the Hubble Space Telescope of 31 24 μm bright z 2 Dust Obscured Galaxies (DOGs) identified in the Boötes Field of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey. Although this subset of DOGs have mid-IR spectral energy distributions dominated by a power-law component suggestive of an AGN, all but one of the galaxies are spatially extended and not dominated by an unresolved component at rest-frame UV or optical wavelengths. The observed V-H and I-H colors of the extended components are 0.2-3 magnitudes redder than normal star-forming galaxies. All but one have axial ratios >0.3, making it unlikely that DOGs are composed of an edge-on star-forming disk. We model the spatially extended component of the surface brightness distributions of the DOGs with a Sérsic profile and find effective radii of 1-6 kpc. This sample of DOGs is smaller than most submillimeter galaxies (SMGs), but larger than quiescent high-redshift galaxies. Nonparametric measures (Gini and M₂₀) of DOG morphologies suggest that these galaxies are more dynamically relaxed than local ULIRGs. We estimate lower limits to the stellar masses of DOGs based on the rest-frame optical photometry and find that these range from ∼10⁹-10¹¹ M. If major mergers are the progenitors of DOGs, then these observations suggest that DOGs may represent a postmerger evolutionary stage.