The Contribution of Star Formation and Merging to Stellar Mass Buildup in Galaxies

Details The Contribution of Star Formation and Merging to Stellar Mass Buildup in Galaxies The Contribution of Star Formation and Merging to Stellar Mass Buildup in Galaxies

Oct 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008aspc..399..260d&link_type=abstract

Panoramic Views of Galaxy Formation and Evolution ASP Conference Series, Vol. 399, proceedings of the conference held 11-16 Dece

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Scientific paper

We present a formalism to reveal merging by subtracting the change in the galaxy stellar mass function (MF) due to mass-dependent star formation (SF) from the observed time derivative of the MF tep{DA08}. We present the SF rate (SFR) in the Fors Deep Field as a function of stellar mass and time spanning 9 < log M_ast < 12 and 0 3, the average SFR is a power law of stellar mass (dot{M}_ast ∝ M_ast^{0.6}). The average SFR in massive objects at this redshift is 100 - 500 M_&sun; yr^{-1}. At z ˜ 3, the SFR starts to drop at high masses. The break mass at which the SFR deviates from the power-law form decreases smoothly from log M_ast^1 > 13 at z˜ 5 to log M_ast^1 ˜ 10.9 at z˜ 0.5, according to M_ast^1(z) = 2.7× 10^{10} (1+z)^{2.1} (downsizing). The SFR in high-mass galaxies at z ˜ 4 can explain their rapid increase in abundance. Within large uncertainties, at most 0.8 effective major mergers per Gyr are consistent with the data, yet enough to transform most high-mass objects into ellipticals contemporaneously with their major SF episode. In contrast, at z < 1.5 and at
M_ast > 11, mergers contribute 0.1 - 0.2 Gyr^{-1} to the increase in number density. This corresponds to ˜ 1 major merger per object at 1.5 > z > 0. At 10 < log M_ast < 11, galaxies are being preferentially destroyed at early times, while at later times the change in their numbers turns positive. This is an indication of the top-down buildup of the red sequence suggested by other recent observations.

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