Issue |
A&A
Volume 556, August 2013
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | A55 | |
Number of page(s) | 19 | |
Section | Extragalactic astronomy | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201321100 | |
Published online | 25 July 2013 |
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
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 (Ks < 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 σΔz/(1 + z) = 0.008 at i+ < 22.5 and σΔz/(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 ≳ 1010.7 − 10.9ℳ⊙. 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 1010 − 10.5ℳ⊙ 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.
Key words: galaxies: distances and redshifts / galaxies: evolution / galaxies: formation / galaxies: star formation / galaxies: stellar content
Based on data products from observations made with ESO Telescopes at the La Silla Paranal Observatory under ESO programme ID 179.A-2005 and on data products produced by TERAPIX and the Cambridge Astronomy Survey Unit on behalf of the UltraVISTA consortium.
Catalogues are only available at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/556/A55
© ESO, 2013
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