Using observations from the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE), we obtain the deepest measurements to date of the galaxy stellar mass function at 0.2 < z < 3. ZFOURGE provides wellconstrained photometric redshifts made possible through deep medium-bandwidth imaging at 1-2µm. We combine this with HST imaging from the Cosmic Assembly Near-IR Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey (CANDELS), allowing for the efficient selection of both blue and red galaxies down to stellar masses ∼ 10 9.5 M ⊙ at z ∼ 2.5. The total surveyed area is 316 arcmin 2 distributed over three independent fields. We supplement these data with the wider and shallower NEWFIRM Medium-Band Survey (NMBS) to provide stronger constraints at high masses. Several studies at z ≤ 1.5 have revealed a steepening of the slope at the low-mass end of the stellar mass function (SMF), leading to an upturn at masses < 10 10 M ⊙ that is not well-described by a standard single-Schechter function. We find evidence that this feature extends to at least z ∼ 2, and that it can be found in both the star-forming and quiescent populations individually. The characteristic mass (M * ) and slope at the lowest masses (α) of a double-Schechter function fit to the SMF stay roughly constant at Log(M/M ⊙ ) ∼ 10.65 and ∼ −1.5 respectively. The SMF of star-forming galaxies has evolved primarily in normalization, while the change in shape is relatively minor. Our data allow us for the first time to observe a rapid buildup at the low-mass end of the quiescent SMF. Since z = 2.5, the total stellar mass density of quiescent galaxies (down to 10 9 M ⊙ ) has increased by a factor of ∼12 whereas the mass density of star-forming galaxies only increases by a factor of ∼2.2. * This paper includes data gathered with the 6.5 meter Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.
We report the likely identification of a substantial population of massive M ∼ 10 11 M galaxies at z ∼ 4 with suppressed star formation rates (SFRs), selected on rest-frame optical to near-IR colors from the FourStar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE). The observed spectral energy distributions show pronounced breaks, sampled by a set of near-IR medium-bandwidth filters, resulting in tightly constrained photometric redshifts. Fitting stellar population models suggests large Balmer/4000 Å breaks, relatively old stellar populations, large stellar masses, and low SFRs, with a median specific SFR of 2.9 ± 1.8 × 10 −11 yr −1 . Ultradeep Herschel/PACS 100 μm, 160 μm and Spitzer/MIPS 24 μm data reveal no dust-obscured SFR activity for 15/19(79%) galaxies. Two far-IR detected galaxies are obscured QSOs. Stacking the far-IR undetected galaxies yields no detection, consistent with the spectral energy distribution fit, indicating independently that the average specific SFR is at least 10× smaller than that of typical star-forming galaxies at z ∼ 4. Assuming all far-IR undetected galaxies are indeed quiescent, the volume density is 1.8 ± 0.7 × 10 −5 Mpc −3 to a limit of log 10 M/M 10.6, which is 10× and 80× lower than at z = 2 and z = 0.1. They comprise a remarkably high fraction (∼35%) of z ∼ 4 massive galaxies, suggesting that suppression of star formation was efficient even at very high redshift. Given the average stellar age of 0.8 Gyr and stellar mass of 0.8 × 10 11 M , the galaxies likely started forming stars before z = 5, with SFRs well in excess of 100 M yr −1 , far exceeding that of similarly abundant UV-bright galaxies at z 4. This suggests that most of the star formation in the progenitors of quiescent z ∼ 4 galaxies was obscured by dust.
We use Chandra X-ray and Spitzer infrared (IR) observations to explore the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and starburst populations of XMMXCS J2215.9−1738 at z = 1.46, one of the most distant spectroscopically confirmed galaxy clusters known. The high-resolution X-ray imaging reveals that the cluster emission is contaminated by point sources that were not resolved in XMM-Newton observations of the system, and have the effect of hardening the spectrum, leading to the previously reported temperature for this system being overestimated. From a joint spectroscopic analysis of the Chandra and XMM-Newton data, the cluster is found to have temperature T = 4.1 +0.6 −0.9 keV and luminosity L X = (2.9244 erg s −1 , extrapolated to a radius of 2 Mpc. As a result of this revised analysis, the cluster is found to lie on the σ v -T relation, but the cluster remains less luminous than would be expected from self-similar evolution of the local L X -T relation. Two of the newly discovered X-ray AGNs are cluster members, while a third object, which is also a prominent 24 µm source, is found to have properties consistent with it being a high-redshift, highly obscured object in the background. We find a total of eight >5σ 24 µm sources associated with cluster members (four spectroscopically confirmed and four selected using photometric redshifts) and one additional 24 µm source with two possible optical/near-IR counterparts that may be associated with the cluster. Examining the Infrared Array Camera colors of these sources, we find that one object is likely to be an AGN. Assuming that the other 24 µm sources are powered by star formation, their IR luminosities imply star formation rates ∼100 M ⊙ yr −1 . We find that three of these sources are located at projected distances of <250 kpc from the cluster center, suggesting that a large amount of star formation may be taking place in the cluster core, in contrast to clusters at low redshift.
We present deep J and K s band photometry of 20 high redshift galaxy clusters between z = 0.8−1.5, 19 of which are observed with the MOIRCS instrument on the Subaru Telescope. By using nearinfrared light as a proxy for stellar mass we find the surprising result that the average stellar mass of Brightest Cluster Galaxies (BCGs) has remained constant at ∼ 9 × 10 11 M ⊙ since z ∼ 1.5. We investigate the effect on this result of differing star formation histories generated by three well known and independent stellar population codes and find it to be robust for reasonable, physically motivated choices of age and metallicity. By performing Monte Carlo simulations we find that the result is unaffected by any correlation between BCG mass and cluster mass in either the observed or model clusters. The large stellar masses imply that the assemblage of these galaxies took place at the same time as the initial burst of star formation. This result leads us to conclude that dry merging has had little effect on the average stellar mass of BCGs over the last 9 − 10 Gyr in stark contrast to the predictions of semi-analytic models, based on the hierarchical merging of dark matter haloes, which predict a more protracted mass build up over a Hubble time. We discuss however that there is potential for reconciliation between observation and theory if there is a significant growth of material in the intracluster light over the same period.
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