Journal article
Evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function: evidence for an increasing M* from z = 2 to the present day
- Abstract:
- Utilizing optical and near-infrared broad-band photometry covering >5 deg2 in two of the most well-studied extragalactic legacy fields (COSMOS and XMM-LSS), we measure the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) between 0.1 < z < 2.0. We explore in detail the effect of two source extraction methods (SExtractor and ProFound) in addition to the inclusion/exclusion of Spitzer IRAC 3.6 and 4.5 μm photometry when measuring the GSMF. We find that including IRAC data reduces the number of massive (log10(M/M⊙) > 11.25) galaxies found due to improved photometric redshift accuracy, but has little effect on the more numerous lower-mass galaxies. We fit the resultant GSMFs with double Schechter functions down to log10(M/M⊙) = 7.75 (9.75) at z = 0.1 (2.0) and find that the choice of source extraction software has no significant effect on the derived best-fitting parameters. However, the choice of methodology used to correct for the Eddington bias has a larger impact on the high-mass end of the GSMF, which can partly explain the spread in derived M* values from previous studies. Using an empirical correction to model the intrinsic GSMF, we find evidence for an evolving characteristic stellar mass with δlog10(M*/M⊙)/δz = −0.16±0.05(−0.11±0.05), when using SExtractor (ProFound). We argue that with widely quenched star formation rates in massive galaxies at low redshift (z < 0.5), additional growth via mergers is required in order to sustain such an evolution to a higher characteristic mass.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Accepted manuscript, 862.4KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1093/mnras/stab1956
Authors
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- Journal:
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society More from this journal
- Volume:
- 506
- Issue:
- 4
- Pages:
- 4933-4951
- Publication date:
- 2021-07-15
- Acceptance date:
- 2021-06-28
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1365-2966
- ISSN:
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0035-8711
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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1187783
- Local pid:
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pubs:1187783
- Deposit date:
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2021-09-15
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Adams et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- © 2021 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
- Notes:
-
This is the accepted manuscript version of the article. The final version is available from Oxford University Press at https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1956
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