Issue |
A&A
Volume 474, Number 2, November I 2007
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 443 - 459 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20077609 | |
Published online | 10 September 2007 |
The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey*
The assembly history of the stellar mass in galaxies: from the young to the old universe
1
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna - via Ranzani,1, 40127, Bologna, Italy e-mail: lucia.pozzetti@oabo.inaf.it
2
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Toulouse/Tabres (UMR5572), CNRS, Université Paul Sabatier – Toulouse III, Observatoire Midi-Pyriénées, 14 av. E. Belin, 31400 Toulouse, France
3
Max Planck Institut fur Astrophysik, 85741 Garching, Germany
4
INAF – IASF – via Bassini 15, 20133, Milano, Italy
5
Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Marseille, UMR 6110 CNRS-Université de Provence, BP8, 13376 Marseille Cedex 12, France
6
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, via Brera 28, Milan, Italy
7
Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Dr., University of Hawaii, Honolulu 96822, Hawaii
8
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095, 98 bis Bvd Arago, 75014 Paris, France
9
Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, 4150-762 Porto, Portugal
10
INAF – IRA – via Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy
11
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via di Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
12
School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham, NG72RD, UK
13
Astrophysical Institute Potsdam, An der Sternwarte 16, 14482 Potsdam, Germany
14
Observatoire de Paris, LERMA, 61 Avenue de l'Observatoire, 75014 Paris, France
15
Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Astronomia, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
16
Centre de Physique Théorique, UMR 6207 CNRS-Université de Provence, 13288 Marseille, France
17
Integral Science Data Centre, ch. d'Écogia 16, 1290 Versoix
18
Geneva Observatory, ch. des Maillettes 51, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
19
Astronomical Observatory of the Jagiellonian University, ul Orla 171, 30-244 Kraków, Poland
20
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte, via Moiariello 16, 80131 Napoli, Italy
21
Universitá di Milano-Bicocca, Dipartimento di Fisica, Piazza delle Scienze 3, 20126 Milano, Italy
22
Università di Bologna, Dipartimento di Fisica, via Irnerio 46, 40126 Bologna, Italy
Received:
4
April
2007
Accepted:
16
August
2007
We present a detailed analysis of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function (GSMF) of galaxies up to as obtained from the VIMOS VLT Deep Survey (VVDS). Our survey offers
the possibility to investigate the GSMF using two different samples: (1) an optical (I-selected
) main spectroscopic sample of about 6500 galaxies over 1750 arcmin2 and
(2) a near-IR (K-selected
) sample of about 10 200 galaxies, with photometric redshifts accurately calibrated on the VVDS spectroscopic sample,
over 610 arcmin2. We apply and compare two
different methods to estimate the stellar mass
from broad-band
photometry based on different assumptions about the galaxy
star-formation history.
We find that the accuracy of the photometric stellar mass
is satisfactory overall, and show that the addition of secondary bursts to
a continuous star formation history produces systematically higher (up to 40%) stellar masses. We derive the cosmic evolution of the GSMF, the galaxy number density and the stellar mass density in different mass ranges.
At low redshift (
) we find a substantial population of low-mass galaxies (<10
) composed of faint blue galaxies (
).
In general the stellar mass function evolves slowly
up to
and more rapidly above this redshift, in particular for low mass systems. Conversely, a massive population is present up to
and has extremely red colours (
–0.8). We find a decline with redshift of the overall number density of galaxies for all masses (
% for
at
), and a mild mass-dependent average evolution (“mass-downsizing”). In particular our data are consistent with mild/negligible (
%) evolution up to
for massive galaxies (
).
For less massive systems the no-evolution scenario is excluded.
Specifically, a large fraction (
) of massive galaxies
have been assembled and converted
most of their gas into stars at
, ruling out
“dry mergers” as the major mechanism of their assembly history below
.
This fraction decreases to
at
.
Low-mass systems have decreased continuously in number
density (by a factor of up to
) from the present age to
,
consistent with a prolonged mass assembly also at
.
The evolution of the stellar mass density
is relatively slow with redshift, with a decrease of
a factor of
at
and about
at
.
Key words: Galaxy: evolution / galaxies: luminosity function, mass function / galaxies: statistics / surveys
© ESO, 2007
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