Colour gradients of high-redshift early-type galaxies from hydrodynamical monolithic models

We analyse the evolution of colour gradients predicted by the hydrodynamical models of earlytype galaxies (ETGs) in Pipino et al., which reproduce fairly well the chemical abundance pattern and the metallicity gradients of local ETGs. We convert the star formation (SF) and metal content into colours by means of stellar population synthetic model and investigate the role of different physical ingredients, as the initial gas distribution and content, and εSF, i.e. the normalization of SF rate. From the comparison with high-redshift data, a full agreement with optical rest-frame observations at z {similar or less-than} 1 is found, for models with low εSF, whereas some discrepancies emerge at 1 < z < 2, despite our models reproduce quite well the data scatter at these redshifts. To reconcile the prediction of these high εSF systems with the shallower colour gradients observed at lower z we suggest intervention of one to two dry mergers. We suggest that future studies should explore the impact of wet galaxy merging, interactions with environment, dust content and a variation of the initial mass function from the galactic centres to the peripheries. © 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.