THE EVOLUTION OF THE STELLAR MASS FUNCTIONS OF STAR-FORMING AND QUIESCENT GALAXIES TO z = 4 FROM THE COSMOS/UltraVISTA SURVEY
- Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden (Netherlands)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Tufts University, Medford, MA 06520 (United States)
- Physics and Astronomy Department, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 (United States)
- Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR7095 CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98 bis Boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris (France)
- Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Maries Vej 30, DK-2100 Copenhagen (Denmark)
- SUPA, Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ (United Kingdom)
- European Southern Observatory, Alonso de Córdova 3107, Casilla 19001, Vitacura, Santiago (Chile)
- Department of Astronomy, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06520-8101 (United States)
We present measurements of the stellar mass functions (SMFs) of star-forming and quiescent galaxies to z = 4 using a sample of 95,675 K{sub s} -selected galaxies in the COSMOS/UltraVISTA field. The SMFs of the combined population are in good agreement with previous measurements and show that the stellar mass density of the universe was only 50%, 10%, and 1% of its current value at z ∼ 0.75, 2.0, and 3.5, respectively. The quiescent population drives most of the overall growth, with the stellar mass density of these galaxies increasing as ρ{sub star}∝(1 + z){sup –4.7±0.4} since z = 3.5, whereas the mass density of star-forming galaxies increases as ρ{sub star}∝(1 + z){sup –2.3±0.2}. At z > 2.5, star-forming galaxies dominate the total SMF at all stellar masses, although a non-zero population of quiescent galaxies persists to z = 4. Comparisons of the K{sub s} -selected star-forming galaxy SMFs with UV-selected SMFs at 2.5 < z < 4 show reasonable agreement and suggest that UV-selected samples are representative of the majority of the stellar mass density at z > 3.5. We estimate the average mass growth of individual galaxies by selecting galaxies at fixed cumulative number density. The average galaxy with log(M{sub star}/M{sub ☉}) = 11.5 at z = 0.3 has grown in mass by only 0.2 dex (0.3 dex) since z = 2.0 (3.5), whereas those with log(M{sub star}/M{sub ☉}) = 10.5 have grown by >1.0 dex since z = 2. At z < 2, the time derivatives of the mass growth are always larger for lower-mass galaxies, which demonstrates that the mass growth in galaxies since that redshift is mass-dependent and primarily bottom-up. Lastly, we examine potential sources of systematic uncertainties in the SMFs and find that those from photo-z templates, stellar population synthesis modeling, and the definition of quiescent galaxies dominate the total error budget in the SMFs.
- OSTI ID:
- 22270708
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 777, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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