2004/12/07 by Niv Drory, N. Drory, M. Salvato +6 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/428044
published as Astrophys.J.619:L131-L134,2005 · Accepted for publication in ApJL
arxiv created 2004/12/07 · openalex publication_date 2005/01/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We present a measurement of the evolution of the stellar mass function (MF) of galaxies and the evolution of the total stellar mass density at 0 < z < 5, extending previous measurements to higher redshift and fainter magnitudes (and lower masses). We use deep multicolor data in the FORS Deep Field (FDF; I -selected reaching I AB ~ 26.8) and the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey-South (GOODS-S)/Chandra Deep Field-South region ( K -selected reaching K AB ~ 25.4) to estimate stellar masses based on fits to composite stellar population models for 5557 and 3367 sources, respectively. The MF of objects from the K -selected GOODS-S sample is very similar to that of the I -selected FDF down to the completeness limit of the GOODS-S sample. Near-IR-selected surveys hence detect the more massive objects of the same principal population as do I -selected surveys. We find that the most massive galaxies harbor the oldest stellar populations at all redshifts. At low z , our MF follows the local MF very well, extending the local MF down by a decade to 10 8 M ☉ . Furthermore, the faint-end slope is consistent with the local value of α ~ 1.1 at least up to z ~ 1.5. Our MF also agrees very well with the Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey and K20 results at z ≲ 2. The MF seems to evolve in a regular way at least up to z ~ 2, with the normalization decreasing by 50% to z = 1 and by 70% to z = 2. Objects with M > 10 10 M ☉ , which are the likely progenitors of today's L > L * galaxies, are found in much smaller numbers above z ~ 2. However, we note that massive galaxies with M > 10 11 M ☉ are present even to the largest redshift we probe. Beyond z ~ 2, the evolution of the MF becomes more rapid. We find that the total stellar mass density at z = 1 is 50% of the local value. At z = 2, 25% of the local mass density is assembled, and at z = 3 and z = 5, we find that at least 15% and 5% of the mass in stars is in place, respectively. The number density of galaxies with M > 10 11 M ☉ evolves very similarly to the evolution at lower masses. It decreases by 0.4 dex to z ~ 1, by 0.6 dex to z ~ 2, and by 1 dex to z ~ 4.