Constraining the galaxy–halo connection over the last 13.3 Gyr: star formation histories, galaxy mergers and structural properties

Rodríguez-Puebla, Aldo; Primack, Joel R.; Avila-Reese, Vladimir; Faber, S. M.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stx1172

Cited by 210 publications

(195 citation statements)

References 247 publications

(331 reference statements)

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“…This is because the simulation is limited to very massive halos (log(M h /M ) ≥ 12.5). Their total influence on the HMF at high halo masses and on the derived SHMR is therefore very limited because the fraction of subhalos with respect to main halos is small (∼ 10% at log(M h /M ) = 12.5 and z = 0, consistent with the results by Rodríguez-Puebla et al 2017 andVegetti 2017). This is also visible in the histograms of Fig.…”

Section: Halo Mass Functionsupporting

confidence: 86%

The stellar-to-halo mass relation over the past 12 Gyr

Girelli

Pozzetti²,

Bolzonella³

et al. 2020

A&A

103

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Aims. Understanding the link between the galaxy properties and the dark matter halos they reside in and their coevolution is a powerful tool for constraining the processes related to galaxy formation. In particular, the stellar-to-halo mass relation (SHMR) and its evolution throughout the history of the Universe provides insights on galaxy formation models and allows us to assign galaxy masses to halos in N-body dark matter simulations. To address these questions, we determine the SHMR throughout the entire cosmic history from z ∼ 4 to the present. Methods. We used a statistical approach to link the observed galaxy stellar mass functions on the COSMOS field to dark matter halo mass functions up to z ∼ 4 from the ΛCDM DUSTGRAIN-pathfinder simulation, which is complete for M h > 10 12.5 M , and extended this to lower masses with a theoretical parameterization. We propose an empirical model to describe the evolution of the SHMR as a function of redshift (either in the presence or absence of a scatter in stellar mass at fixed halo mass), and compare the results with several literature works and semianalytic models of galaxy formation. We also tested the reliability of our results by comparing them to observed galaxy stellar mass functions and to clustering measurements. Results. We derive the SHMR from z = 0 to z = 4, and model its empirical evolution with redshift. We find that M * /M h is always lower than ∼ 0.05 and depends both on redshift and halo mass, with a bell shape that peaks at M h ∼ 10 12 M . Assuming a constant cosmic baryon fraction, we calculate the star-formation efficiency of galaxies and find that it is generally low; its peak increases with cosmic time from ∼ 30% at z ∼ 4 to ∼ 35% at z ∼ 0. Moreover, the star formation efficiency increases for increasing redshifts at masses higher than the peak of the SHMR, while the trend is reversed for masses lower than the peak. This indicates that massive galaxies (i.e., galaxies hosted at halo masses higher than the SHMR peak) formed with a higher efficiency at higher redshifts (i.e., downsizing effect) and vice versa for low-mass halos. We find a large scatter in results from semianalytic models, with a difference of up to a factor ∼ 8 compared to our results, and an opposite evolutionary trend at high halo masses. By comparing our results with those in the literature, we find that while at z ∼ 0 all results agree well (within a factor of ∼ 3), at z > 0 many differences emerge. This suggests that observational and theoretical work still needs to be done. Our results agree well (within ∼ 10%) with observed stellar mass functions (out to z = 4) and observed clustering of massive galaxies (M * > 10 11 M from z ∼ 0.5 to z ∼ 1.1) in the two-halo regime.

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Section: Halo Mass Functionsupporting

confidence: 86%

The stellar-to-halo mass relation over the past 12 Gyr

Girelli

Pozzetti²,

Bolzonella³

et al. 2020

A&A

103

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“…The backbone of our work is the SMHM and all our results depend on it. In figure B1 we compare our SMHM fitted to reproduce the SDSS M15/16 SMF to that of Rodríguez-Puebla et al (2017) and of Dutton et al (2010) for LTGs at z ∼ 0.1. Notably, the high mass slope of our SMHM is much steeper than that of Rodríguez-Puebla et al (2017).…”

Section: Appendix B: Caveats B1 Model Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In figure B1 we compare our SMHM fitted to reproduce the SDSS M15/16 SMF to that of Rodríguez-Puebla et al (2017) and of Dutton et al (2010) for LTGs at z ∼ 0.1. Notably, the high mass slope of our SMHM is much steeper than that of Rodríguez-Puebla et al (2017). Our estimate of the SMHM agrees with other studies where an improved photometry was used (Shankar et al 2017, Grylls et al 2019.…”

Section: Appendix B: Caveats B1 Model Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Galaxy sizes and the galaxy–halo connection – I. The remarkable tightness of the size distributions

Zanisi

Shankar

Lapi

et al. 2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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The mass and structural assembly of galaxies is a matter of intense debate. Current theoretical models predict the existence of a linear relationship between galaxy size (R e ) and the host dark matter halo virial radius (R h ). By making use of semi-empirical models compared to the size distributions of central galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, we provide robust constraints on the normalization and scatter of the R e − R h relation. We explore the parameter space of models in which the R e − R h relation is mediated by either the spin parameter or the concentration of the host halo, or a simple constant the nature of which is in principle unknown. We find that the data require extremely tight relations for both early-type and latetype galaxies (ETGs,LTGs), especially for more massive galaxies. These constraints challenge models based solely on angular momentum conservation, which predict significantly wider distributions of galaxy sizes and no trend with stellar mass, if taken at face value. We discuss physically-motivated alterations to the original models that bring the predictions into better agreement with the data. We argue that the measured tight size distributions of SDSS disk galaxies can be reproduced by semi-empirical models in which the R e − R h connection is mediated by the stellar specific angular momenta j st ar . We find that current cosmological models of galaxy formation broadly agree with our constraints for LTGs, and justify the strong link between R e and j st ar that we propose, however the tightness of the R e − R h relation found in such ab-initio theoretical models for ETGs is in tension with our semi-empirical findings.

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“…Numerical simulations (e.g., Oser et al 2010;Wellons et al 2015), semi-analytic models (SAM; e.g., Lee & Yi 2013, 2017, and stellar-mass-halo-mass (SHAM) analyses (e.g., Moster et al 2013Moster et al , 2018Behroozi et al 2013b;Rodríguez-Puebla et al 2017) generally show that the fraction of accreted stars through mergers increase with total galaxy stellar mass or halo mass (e.g., Lackner et al 2012;Cooper et al 2013;Rodriguez-Gomez et al 2016;Qu et al 2017;Pillepich et al 2018). For example, Qu et al (2017) analyzed the mass assembly of central galaxies in the EA-GLE cosmological simulation and found that ∼ 20% of the stellar mass of present day massive galaxies (> 10 11 M ) is built up through mergers, and more massive galaxies have experienced more stellar-mass growth by mergers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the (Lack of) Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function of Massive Galaxies from z = 1.5 to 0.4

Kawinwanichakij

Papovich

Ciardullo

et al. 2020

ApJ

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We study the evolution in the number density of the highest mass galaxies over 0.4 < z < 1.5 (covering 9 Gyr). We use the Spitzer/HETDEX Exploratory Large-Area (SHELA) Survey, which covers 17.5 deg 2 with eight photometric bands spanning 0.3-4.5 µm within the SDSS Stripe 82 field. This size produces the lowest counting uncertainties and cosmic variance yet for massive galaxies at z ∼ 1.0. We study the stellar mass function (SMF) for galaxies with log(M * /M ) > 10.3 using a forward-modeling method that fully accounts for statistical and systematic uncertainties on stellar mass. From z=0.4 to 1.5 the massive end of the SMF shows minimal evolution in its shape: the characteristic mass (M * ) evolves by less than 0.1 dex (±0.05 dex); the number density of galaxies with log M * /M > 11 stays roughly constant at log(n/Mpc −3 ) −3.4 (±0.05), then declines to log n/Mpc −3 =−3.7 (±0.05) at z=1.5. We discuss the uncertainties in the SMF, which are dominated by assumptions in the star formation history and details of stellar population synthesis models for stellar mass estimations. For quiescent galaxies, the data are consistent with no (or slight) evolution ( 0.1 dex) in the characteristic mass nor number density from z ∼ 1.5 to the present. This implies that any mass growth (presumably through "dry' mergers) of the quiescent massive galaxy population must balance the rate of mass losses from late-stage stellar evolution and the formation of quenching galaxies from the star-forming population. We provide a limit on this mass growth from z = 1.0 to 0.4 of ∆M * /M * ≤ 45% (i.e., 0.16 dex) for quiescent galaxies more massive than 10 11 M .

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Constraining the galaxy–halo connection over the last 13.3 Gyr: star formation histories, galaxy mergers and structural properties

Cited by 210 publications

References 247 publications

The stellar-to-halo mass relation over the past 12 Gyr

The stellar-to-halo mass relation over the past 12 Gyr

Galaxy sizes and the galaxy–halo connection – I. The remarkable tightness of the size distributions

On the (Lack of) Evolution of the Stellar Mass Function of Massive Galaxies from z = 1.5 to 0.4

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