[IML2013] 149.69361+02.04229 , the SIMBAD biblio

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 (K_s<24) sample of 220000 galaxies selected using the new UltraVISTA DR1 data release. Our analysis is based on precise 30-band photometric redshifts. By comparing these photometric redshifts with 10,800 spectroscopic redshifts from the zCOSMOS bright and faint surveys, we find a precision of σ_Δz/(1+z)=0.008 at i⁺<22.5 and σ_Δz/(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>10^10.7–10.9M_☉. 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 0.2dex 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 0.2dex 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 10^10–10.5M_☉ 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.