2019MNRAS.486.4880A -
Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 486, 4880-4893 (2019/July-2)
LARgE Survey - I. Dead monsters: the massive end of the passive galaxy stellar mass function at cosmic noon.
ARCILA-OSEJO L., SAWICKI M., ARNOUTS S., GOLOB A., MOUTARD T. and SORBA R.
Abstract (from CDS):
We introduce the largest to date survey of massive quiescent galaxies at redshift z ∼ 1.6. With these data, which cover 27.6 deg2, we can find significant numbers of very rare objects such as ultra-massive quiescent galaxies that populate the extreme massive end of the galaxy mass function, or dense environments that are likely to become present-day massive galaxy clusters. In this paper, the first in a series, we apply our gzKs adaptation of the BzK technique to select our z ∼ 1.6 galaxy catalogue and then study the quiescent galaxy stellar mass function with good statistics over M* ∼ 1010.2-1011.7 M☉ - a factor of 30 in mass - including 60 ultra-massive z ∼ 1.6 quiescent galaxies with M* > 1011.5 M☉. We find that the stellar mass function of quiescent galaxies at z ∼ 1.6 is well represented by the Schechter function over this large mass range. This suggests that the mass-quenching mechanism observed at lower redshifts must have already been well established by this epoch, and that it is likely due to a single physical mechanism over a wide range of mass. This close adherence to the Schechter shape also suggests that neither merging nor gravitational lensing significantly affects the observed quenched population. Finally, comparing measurements of M^*parameters for quiescent and star-forming populations (ours and from the literature), we find hints of an offset (M*_ SF_> M*_ PE_), which could suggest that the efficiency of the quenching process evolves with time.
Abstract Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society
Journal keyword(s):
galaxies: evolution - galaxies: formation - galaxies: luminosity function, mass function - galaxies: statistics
Simbad objects:
2
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