2006/01/31 by G. Feulner, Georg Feulner, A. Gabasch +7
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Billion years #Electrical and Electromagnetic Research #Elliptical galaxy #Field galaxy #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Galaxy cluster #Galaxy formation and evolution #Redshift #Star formation #Stellar mass #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/978-3-540-74713-0_71
3 pages, 2 figures; published in B. Aschenbach, V. Burwitz, G. Hasinger, B. Leibundgut (eds.): "Relativistic Astrophysics and Cosmology - Einstein's Legacy. Proceedings of the Conference held in Munich, 2006", ESO Astrophysics Symposia, Springer Verlag, 2007, p. 310. Replaced to match final published version
openalex publication_date 2007/10/18 · arxiv created 2007/12/10 · arxiv updated 2015/06/24 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We use the optical and near-infrared galaxy samples from the Munich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey (MUNICS), the FORS Deep Field (FDF) and GOODS-S to probe the stellar mass assembly history of field galaxies out to z ~ 5. Combining information on the galaxies' stellar mass with their star-formation rate and the age of the stellar population, we can draw important conclusions on the assembly of the most massive galaxies in the universe: These objects contain the oldest stellar populations at all redshifts probed. Furthermore, we show that with increasing redshift the contribution of star-formation to the mass assembly for massive galaxies increases dramatically, reaching the era of their formation at z ~ 2 and beyond. These findings can be interpreted as evidence for an early epoch of star formation in the most massive galaxies in the universe.