Issue |
A&A
Volume 448, Number 2, March III 2006
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 447 - 456 | |
Section | Cosmology (including clusters of galaxies) | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20054007 | |
Published online | 24 February 2006 |
The buildup of stellar mass and the 3.6 μm luminosity function in clusters from z = 1.25 to z = 0.2
INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Milano, Italy e-mail: andreon@brera.mi.astro.it
Received:
8
August
2005
Accepted:
25
October
2005
We have measured the 3.6 μm luminosity evolution of about 1000 galaxies in
32 clusters at , without any a priori assumption about luminosity
evolution, i.e. in a logically rigorous way. We find that the luminosity of
our galaxies evolves as an old and passively evolving population formed at high
redshift without any need for additional redshift-dependent evolution. Models
with a prolonged stellar mass growth are rejected by the data with high
confidence. The data also reject models in which the age of the stars is the
same at all redshifts. Similarly, the characteristic stellar mass evolves,
in the last two thirds of the universe age, as expected for a stellar
population formed at high redshift. Together with the old age of stellar
populations derived from fundamental plane studies, our data seems to suggest
that early-type cluster galaxies have been completely assembled at high
redshift, and not only that their stars are old. The quality of the data allows
us to derive the LF and mass evolution homogeneously over the whole redshift
range, using a single estimator. The Schechter function describes the galaxy
luminosity function well. The characteristic luminosity at
is is found
to be 16.30 mag, with an uncertainty of 10 per cent.
Key words: galaxies: luminosity function, mass function / galaxies: evolution / galaxies: formation / galaxies: clusters: general
© ESO, 2006
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