Euclid Quick Data Release (Q1): Disc breaks highlight the structural evolution of galaxies through time
Abstract
Changes in the slope of the radial surface brightness profiles of disc galaxies, or disc breaks, encode valuable information about the processes driving disc formation and growth. Until now, due to the resolution and depth required, statistical studies of break types have been limited mostly to the local Universe. We aim to study the structural properties and redshift evolution of disc breaks in a large and statistically representative sample of galaxies out to redshift z=1 using the superb depth and resolution of Euclid. We develop an automatic pipeline to extract and analyse surface brightness profiles of 8748 disc galaxies selected from the Euclid Q1 dataset. The pipeline includes advanced masking, surface brightness profile extraction, integrated photometry and structural parameter measurements, and piecewise modelling to classify galaxies into Types I (pure exponential), Type II (down-bending), Type III (up-bending), and composite break (e.g., Type~II+III, Type~II+II, etc) profiles. We quantify structural parameters such as scale lengths, break radii, and surface brightness levels, and analyse their distributions and redshift dependence. Our automatic method produces reliable masks and deep surface brightness profiles, and classifies galaxy profiles with an estimated accuracy of 70%. Using a subsample of 4385 galaxies with reliable classifications, we find that the most common profiles are Types II, II+III, I, and III. We find substantial evolution in the fraction of disc breaks with time. Type II profiles dominate at low redshift (50%), while Types III and II+III profiles increase in frequency with lookback time, reaching 30% each at z~1. Our study provides the first statistically robust measurement of the evolution of disc break types over 5 Gyr. The observed trends support a scenario in which secular processes replace environmental influences as galaxies mature.