Mass assembly in quiescent and star-forming galaxies since z ≃ 4 from UltraVISTA^⋆,⋆⋆

¹ Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille), UMR 7326, 13388 Marseille, France
e-mail: olivier.ilbert@lam.fr
² Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris, UMR 7095 CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, 98bis boulevard Arago, 75014 Paris, France
³ Spitzer Science Center, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
⁴ Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Edinburgh, EH9 3HJ, UK
⁵ Institute for Computational Cosmology, Durham University, South Road, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK
⁶ Argelander-Institute of Astronomy, Bonn University, Auf dem Hügel 71, 53121 Bonn, Germany
⁷ Dipartimento di Astronomia, Universita di Padova, vicolo dell’Osservatorio 2, 35122 Padua, Italy
⁸ Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, PO Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen, The Netherlands
⁹ Canada France Hawaii telescope corporation, 65-1238 Mamalahoa Hwy, Kamuela, Hawaii 96743, USA
¹⁰ AIM Unité Mixte de Recherche CEA CNRS, Université Paris VII, UMR n158, Paris, France
¹¹ Partner Group of the Max-Planck-Institut für Astrophysik, National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100012 Beijing, PR China
¹² National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719, USA
¹³ Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Juliane Mariesvej 30, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
¹⁴ Laboratoire AIM, CEA/DSM/IRFU, CNRS, Université Paris-Diderot, 91190 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
¹⁵ Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
¹⁶ CRAL, Université Lyon-1 and CNRS-UMR 5574, 9 avenue Charles André, 69561 Saint-Genis Laval Cedex, France
¹⁷ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik, Postfach 1312, 85741 Garching bei München, Germany
¹⁸ Excellence Cluster, Boltzmann Strasse 2, 85748 Garching, Germany
¹⁹ Institute for Astronomy, 2680 Woodlawn Dr., University of Hawaii, 96822 Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
²⁰ California Institute of Technology, MC 105-24, 1200 East California Boulevard, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
²¹ Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe, Todai Institutes for Advanced Study, the University of Tokyo, 277-8583 Kashiwa, Japan
²² Research Center for Space and Cosmic Evolution, Ehime University, Bunkyo-cho 2–5, 790-8577 Matsuyama, Japan
²³ INAF – IASFBO, via P. Gobetti 101, 40129 Bologna, Italy

Received: 14 January 2013
Accepted: 30 May 2013

Abstract

We estimate the galaxy stellar mass function and stellar mass density for star-forming and quiescent galaxies with 0.2 < z < 4. We construct a large, deep (K_s < 24) sample of 220 000 galaxies selected using the new UltraVISTA DR1 data release. Our analysis is based on precise 30-band photometricredshifts. By comparing these photometric redshifts with 10,800 spectroscopic redshifts from the zCOSMOS bright and faint surveys, we find a precision of σ_{Δz/(1 + z)} = 0.008 at i⁺ < 22.5 and σ_{Δz/(1 + z)} = 0.03 at 1.5 < z < 4. We derive the stellar mass function and correct for the Eddington bias. We find a mass-dependent evolution of the global and star-forming populations, with the low-mass end of the mass functions evolving more rapidly than the high-mass end. This mass-dependent evolution is a direct consequence of the star formation being “quenched” in galaxies more massive than ℳ ≳ 10^{10.7 − 10.9}ℳ_⊙. For the mass function of the quiescent galaxies, we do not find any significant evolution of the high-mass end at z < 1; however we observe a clear flattening of the faint-end slope. From z ~ 3 to z ~ 1, the density of quiescent galaxies increases over the entire mass range. Their comoving stellar mass density increases by 1.6 dex between z ~ 3 and z ~ 1 and by less than 0.2 dex at z < 1. We infer the star formation history from the mass density evolution. This inferred star formation history is in excellent agreement with instantaneous star formation rate measurements at z < 1.5, while we find differences of 0.2 dex at z > 1.5 consistent with the expected uncertainties. We also develop a new method to infer the specific star formation rate from the mass function of star-forming galaxies. We find that the specific star formation rate of 10^{10 − 10.5}ℳ_⊙ galaxies increases continuously in the redshift range 1 < z < 4. Finally, we compare our results with a semi-analytical model and find that these models overestimate the density of low mass quiescent galaxies by an order of magnitude, while the density of low-mass star-forming galaxies is successfully reproduced.