GALAXY STELLAR MASS FUNCTIONS FROM ZFOURGE/CANDELS: AN EXCESS OF LOW-MASS GALAXIES SINCE z = 2 AND THE RAPID BUILDUP OF QUIESCENT GALAXIES

By A. Tomczak, R. Quadri, K. Tran, I. Labbé, C. Straatman, Casey, Papovich, Karl Glazebrook, R. Allen, G. Brammer and 12 more. 2013

309 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Using observations from the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE), we obtain the deepest measurements to date of the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) at 0.2 < z < 3. ZFOURGE provides well-constrained photometric redshifts made possible through deep medium-bandwidth imaging at 1–2 μm. We combine this with Hubble Space Telescope imaging from the Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey, allowing for the efficient selection of both blue and red galaxies down to stellar masses of ∼109.5 M☉ at z ∼ 2.5. The total surveyed area is 316 arcmin2 distributed over three independent fields. We supplement these data with the wider and shallower NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey to provide stronger constraints at high masses. Several studies at z ⩽ 1.5 have revealed a steepening of the slope at the low-mass end of the SMF, leading to an upturn at masses <1010 M☉ that is not well described by a standard single-Schechter function. We find evidence that this feature extends to at least z ∼ 2 and that it can be found in both the star-forming and quiescent populations individually. The characteristic mass (M*) and slope at the lowest masses (α) of a double-Schechter function fit to the SMF stay roughly constant at Log(M/M☉) ∼ 10.65 and ∼ − 1.5, respectively. The SMF of star-forming galaxies has evolved primarily in normalization, while the change in shape is relatively minor. Our data allow us, for the first time, to observe a rapid buildup at the low-mass end of the quiescent SMF. Since z = 2.5, the total stellar mass density of quiescent galaxies (down to 109 M☉) has increased by a factor of ∼12, whereas the mass density of star-forming galaxies only increases by a factor of ∼2.2.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

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In Astronomy and Astrophysics

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Citations in the corpus

• UniverseMachine: The correlation between galaxy growth and dark matter halo assembly from z = 0−10 (2018, unknown): “Observational Constraints on the Stellar Mass Function Publication Redshifts colours Area (deg2) Notes Baldry et al. (2012) 0.002-0.06 ugriz 143 N Moustakas et al. (2013) 0.05 - 1 UV-MIR 9 SDP Tomczak et al. (2014) 0.2 - 3 UV-Ks 0.08 N Ilbert et al. (2013) 0.2 - 4 UV-Ks 1.5 NM Muzzin et al. (2013) 0”
• BULGE GROWTH AND QUENCHING SINCE z = 2.5 IN CANDELS/3D-HST (2014, methodology): “…galaxies over cosmic time using large surveys such as SDSS, NMBS, zCOSMOS, UltraVISTA and zFOURGE showed that the probability for a galaxy being quenched increases with its mass (Peng et al. 2010; Brammer et al. 2011; Ilbert et al. 2013; Muzzin et al. 2013; Woo et al. 2013; Tomczak et al. 2014).”
• MUFASA: Galaxy Formation Simulations With Meshless Hydrodynamics (2016, methodology): “At z = 1, the Mufasa mass function is in good agreement with the Tomczak et al. (2014) observations, with χ2ν ≈ 1.”
• THE SFR–M* RELATION AND EMPIRICAL STAR FORMATION HISTORIES FROM ZFOURGE AT 0.5 < z < 4 (2015, methodology): “Leja et al. (2015) performed such an analysis using stellar mass functions from Tomczak et al. (2014) and SFR−M∗ relations from Whitaker et al. (2012) finding that the inferred growth from star-formation greatly over-predicts the observed number densities of galaxies, even on short cosmic…”
• The star formation activity of IllustrisTNG galaxies: main sequence, UVJ diagram, quenched fractions, and systematics (2018, background): “Since the rest-frame color distribution could be slightly different from one galaxy sample to another, some authors adjust arbitrarily the cut to better separate the two peaks of the galaxy number density in their sample (Whitaker et al. 2011; Muzzin et al. 2013; Tomczak et al. 2014).”
• The galaxy stellar mass function at 3.5 ≤z ≤ 7.5 in the CANDELS/UDS, GOODS-South, and HUDF fields (2015, background): “Accordingly, several studies have used deep HST and Spitzer data to begin to investigate the GSMF at z ≥ 4 (Stark et al. 2009; Labbé et al. 2010; González et al. 2011; Caputi et al. 2011; Lee et al. 2012; Duncan et al. 2014) or down to very small masses but at z ≤ 4 (Tomczak et al. 2014).”
• The BAHAMAS project: Calibrated hydrodynamical simulations for large-scale structure cosmology (2016, methodology): “For comparison, we show recent local measurements from GAMA (Baldry et al. 2012) and SDSS (Li & White 2009; Moustakas et al. 2013) along with high-z data from the ZFOURGE/CANDELS (Tomczak et al. 2014) and UltraVISTA/zCOSMOS (Muzzin et al. 2013; Ilbert et al. 2013) surveys.”
• Inferring the star formation histories of massive quiescent galaxies with bagpipes: evidence for multiple quenching mechanisms (2017, background): “The simplest interpretation of this observation (as suggested by both Pacifici et al. 2016 andSiudek et al. 2017) relates to the continuing assembly of the red sequence throughout our observed-redshift range (e.g. Faber et al. 2007; Tomczak et al. 2014).”
• Near infrared spectroscopy and star-formation histories of 3 ≤ z ≤ 4 quiescent galaxies (2018, background): “…Hill et al. 2016; Glazebrook et al. 2017), and that their number density has been rising continuously until the present day (e.g., Faber et al. 2007; Ilbert et al. 2010; Brammer et al. 2011; Muzzin et al. 2013; Ilbert et al. 2013; Stefanon et al. 2013; Tomczak et al. 2014; Straatman et al. 2014).”
• The EAGLE simulations of galaxy formation: calibration of subgrid physics and model variations (2015, methodology): “…presented by Moustakas et al. (2013), triangles represent measurements over the redshift interval 0.2 < z < 4 inferred from UltraVISTA data by Muzzin et al. (2013), and squares represent measurements over the redshift interval 0.625 < z < 2.25 inferred from ZFOURGE data by Tomczak et al. (2014).”
• THE EVOLUTION OF THE GALAXY STELLAR MASS FUNCTION AT z = 4–8: A STEEPENING LOW-MASS-END SLOPE WITH INCREASING REDSHIFT (2015, methodology): “…investigated observationally during the past decade (e.g., Marchesini et al. 2009; Baldry et al. 2012; Ilbert et al. 2013; Muzzin et al. 2013; Tomczak et al. 2014), mostly using traditional techniques (e.g., 1/Vmax, maximal likelihood) that assess and correct for the incompleteness in…”
• Evolution of galaxy stellar masses and star formation rates in the eagle simulations (2014, methodology): “For example, PRIMUS (Moustakas et al. 2013), ULTRAVISTA (Ilbert et al. 2013; Muzzin et al. 2013) and ZFOURGE (Tomczak et al. 2014) provide improved constraints out to redshift 4.”
• Physical Models of Galaxy Formation in a Cosmological Framework (2014, background): “Observations included in the fit are: z = 0.1 – Baldry et al. (2008), Moustakas et al. (2013); z = 1 and z = 2 panels – Tomczak et al. (2014), Muzzin et al. (2013).”
• CONSTRAINING THE LOW-MASS SLOPE OF THE STAR FORMATION SEQUENCE AT 0.5 < z < 2.5 (2014, background): “In a recent paper, Leja et al. (2014) examine the connection between the observed correlation between log Ψ and log M from Whitaker et al. (2012b) and the observed stellar mass functions from Tomczak et al. (2014) at 0.2 < z < 2.5.”