The Kormendy Relation of HDF Ellipticals

We present the results of the detailed surface photometry of a sample of elliptical galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field. In the (surface_brightness-effective_radius) plane, the elliptical galaxies of the HDF turn out to follow a `rest frame' Kormendy relation, once the appropriate K+E corrections are applied. This evidence, linked to the dynamical information gathered by Steidel et al. (1996), indicates that these galaxies, even at z ~ 2-3, lie in the Fundamental Plane, in a virial equilibrium condition. At the same redshifts a statistically signifcant lack of large galaxies [i.e. with log r_e(kpc) > 0.2] is observed