The Stellar Mass Assembly of Galaxies from z = 0 to z = 4: Analysis of a Sample Selected in the Rest-Frame Near-Infrared with Spitzer

By P. Pérez-González, G. Rieke, V. Villar, G. Barro, M. Blaylock, E. Egami, J. Gallego, A. Gil de Paz, S. Pascual, J. Zamorano and 1 more. 2007

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Using a sample of ~28,000 sources selected at 3.6-4.5 μm with Spitzer observations of the Hubble Deep Field North, the Chandra Deep Field South, and the Lockman Hole (surveyed area ~664 arcmin2), we study the evolution of the stellar mass content of the universe at 0 < z < 4. We calculate stellar masses and photometric redshifts, based on ~2000 templates built with stellar population and dust emission models fitting the ultraviolet to mid-infrared spectral energy distributions of galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts. We estimate stellar mass functions for different redshift intervals. We find that 50% of the local stellar mass density was assembled at 0 < z < 1 (average star formation rate [SFR] 0.048 M☉ yr−1 Mpc−3), and at least another 40% at 1 < z < 4 (average SFR 0.074 M☉ yr−1 Mpc−3). Our results confirm and quantify the “downsizing” scenario of galaxy formation. The most massive galaxies (M > 1012.0 M☉) assembled the bulk of their stellar content rapidly (in 1-2 Gyr) beyond z ∼ 3 in very intense star formation events (producing high specific SFRs). Galaxies with 1011.5 < M < 1012.0 M☉ assembled half of their stellar mass before z ∼ 1.5, and more than 90% of their mass was already in place at z ∼ 0.6. Galaxies with M < 1011.5 M☉ evolved more slowly (presenting smaller specific SFRs), assembling half of their stellar mass below z ∼ 1. About 40% of the local stellar mass density of 109.0 < M < 1011.0 M☉ galaxies was assembled below z ∼ 0.4, most probably through accretion of small satellites producing little star formation. The cosmic stellar mass density at z > 2.5 is dominated by optically faint (R≳ 25) red galaxies (distant red galaxies or BzK sources), which account for ~30% of the global population of galaxies, but contribute at least 60% of the cosmic stellar mass density. Bluer galaxies (e.g., Lyman break galaxies) are more numerous but less massive, contributing less than 50% of the global stellar mass density at high redshift.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

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Citations in the corpus

THE MAJOR AND MINOR GALAXY MERGER RATES AT z < 1.5 (2011, background): “St09 adopts the sub-halo mass - stellar mass matching relationship from Conroy & Wechsler (2009), based upon the observed stellar mass functions at 0 < z < 2 (Bell et al. 2003, Panter et al. 2007, Dory et al. 2005, Borsch et al. 2006, Pérez-González et al. 2008, Fontana et al. 2006).”
BLAST: RESOLVING THE COSMIC SUBMILLIMETER BACKGROUND (2009, background): “This latter explanation is more likely, since it is now believed that the bulk of the total stellar mass in the Universe was formed in more numerous, less luminous galaxies at lower redshifts than those detected in longer-wavelength submillimeter surveys (e.g. Pérez-González et al. 2008).”
CANDELS: THE PROGENITORS OF COMPACT QUIESCENT GALAXIES AT z ∼ 2 (2012, result): “10−3 Mpc−3 (Pérez-González et al. 2008), we obtain an assembly rate for new cSFGs via mergers of ∆ncSFG∼10 −4 Gyr−1, which is roughly consistent with the observed densities for the predicted ∆tburst.”
PRIMUS: CONSTRAINTS ON STAR FORMATION QUENCHING AND GALAXY MERGING, AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE STELLAR MASS FUNCTION FROM z = 0–1 (2013, background): “By contrast, previous studies have found much stronger evidence for downsizing within the global galaxy population (see, e.g., Fontana et al. 2006; Pérez-González et al. 2008; Pozzetti et al. 2007, 2010).”
EVOLUTION OF THE GALAXY–DARK MATTER CONNECTION AND THE ASSEMBLY OF GALAXIES IN DARK MATTER HALOS (2011, background): “With the advent of deep, multi wave-band surveys, it has even become possible to estimate the luminosity/stellar mass functions of galaxies out to z ∼ 8 (e.g. Drory et al. 2005; Fontana et al. 2006; Perez-Gonzalez et al. 2008; Marchesini et al. 2009; Stark et al. 2009; Bouwens et al. 2011).”
A fundamental problem in our understanding of low-mass galaxy evolution (2012, methodology): “For example, in the dataset of Pérez-González et al. (2008) the number of galaxies with log(Mstar/M⊙) = 9.27− 9.77 increases by a factor of 2 from 6 For Pérez-González et al., we use the datapoints and errors of the I-band MF.”
A new measurement of the evolving near-infrared galaxy luminosity function out to z≃ 4: a continuing challenge to theoretical models of galaxy formation (2008, background): “…the advent of the Spitzer satellite has provided the opportunity to derive reliable estimates for the stellar masses in galaxies at high redshift, allowing a direct study of the evolution of the mass function (Fontana 2004, 2006; Drory et al. 2005; Perez-Gonzalez et al. 2008; Pozzetti et al. 2007).”
Compact high-redshift galaxies are the cores of the most massive present-day spheroids (2009, background): “Specifically, given the total number density of >1010 M spheroids/compact red systems at these redshifts (Pérez-González et al. 2008b), convolved with the distribution of profile shapes from van Dokkum et al. (2008), we obtain the number density of objects with mass above the relevant threshold.”
THE GROWTH OF MASSIVE GALAXIES SINCE z = 2 (2009, background): “Other studies focus on evolution of the luminosity and mass functions, which trace changes in the number density of galaxies with particular properties (e.g., Fontana et al. 2006; Pérez-González et al. 2008; Marchesini et al. 2009).”
Evidence of Environmental Dependencies of Type Ia Supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory indicated by Local H$\alpha$ (2013, background): “Because the mass of a galaxy correlates with its metallicity, age, and sSFR (see Tremonti et al. 2004; Gallazzi et al. 2005; Pérez-González et al. 2008, respectively), this mass step is most likely driven by an intrinsic SN progenitor variation.”
Four phases of angular-momentum buildup in high-z galaxies: from cosmic-web streams through an extended ring to disc and bulge (2014, background): “This leads to a stellar-to-halo mass fraction of ∼0.1 within the virial radius, a factor of ∼2–3 higher than the observationally indicated value (e.g. Pérez-González et al. 2008; Behroozi, Wechsler & Conroy 2013; Moster, Naab & White 2013).”
Simulations of the galaxy population constrained by observations from z = 3 to the present day: implications for galactic winds and the fate of their ejecta (2012, background): “…& Driver (2008) and Li & White (2009) at z = 0, and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS)-MUSIC (Fontana et al. 2006), Spitzer (Pérez-González et al. 2008), Marchesini et al. (2009), Spitzer-Cosmic Evolution Survey (COSMOS; Ilbert et al. 2010), NOAO Extremely Wide-Field…”
Early type galaxies have been the predominant morphological class for massive galaxies since only z~1 (2011, background): “The number density of massive galaxies has significantly changed since z∼3 (e.g. Rudnick et al. 2003; Pérez-González et al. 2008, Mortlock et al. 2011, Conselice et al. 2011) with a continuous increase in the number of these objects in the last ∼11 Gyr.”