The size and mass evolution of the massive galaxies over cosmic time
  Once understood as the paradigm of passively evolving objects, the discovery
that massive galaxies experienced an enormous structural evolution in the last
ten billion years has opened an active line of research. The most significant
pending question in this field is the following: which mechanism has made
galaxies to grow largely in size without altering their stellar populations
properties dramatically? The most viable explanation is that massive galaxies
have undergone a significant number of minor mergers which have deposited most
of their material in the outer regions of the massive galaxies. This scenario,
although appealing, is still far from be observationally proved since the
number of satellite galaxies surrounding the massive objects appears
insufficient at all redshifts. The presence also of a population of nearby
massive compact galaxies with mixture stellar properties is another piece of
the puzzle that still does not nicely fit within a comprehensive scheme. I will
review these and other intriguing properties of the massive galaxies in this
contribution.
