Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Huertas-Company, M.
• Bernardi, M.
• Pérez-González, P. G.
• Ashby, M. L. N.
• Barro, G.
• Conselice, C.
• Daddi, E.
• Dekel, A.
• Dimauro, P.
• Faber, S. M.
• Grogin, N. A.
• Kartaltepe, J. S.
• Kocevski, D. D.
• Koekemoer, A. M.
• Koo, D. C.
• Mei, S.
• Shankar, F.

Titel

Mass assembly and morphological transformations since z ∼ 3 from CANDELS

Ist Teil von

• Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 2016-11, Vol.462 (4), p.4495-4516

Ort / Verlag

London: Oxford University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2016

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• We quantify the evolution of the stellar mass functions (SMFs) of star-forming and quiescent galaxies as a function of morphology from z ∼ 3 to the present. Our sample consists of ∼50 000 galaxies in the CANDELS fields (∼880 arcmin2), which we divide into four main morphological types, i.e. pure bulge-dominated systems, pure spiral disc-dominated, intermediate two-component bulge+disc systems and irregular disturbed galaxies. At z ∼ 2, 80 per cent of the stellar mass density of star-forming galaxies is in irregular systems. However, by z ∼ 0.5, irregular objects only dominate at stellar masses below 109 M⊙. A majority of the star-forming irregulars present at z ∼ 2 undergo a gradual transformation from disturbed to normal spiral disc morphologies by z ∼ 1 without significant interruption to their star formation. Rejuvenation after a quenching event does not seem to be common except perhaps for the most massive objects, because the fraction of bulge-dominated star-forming galaxies with M */M⊙ > 1010.7 reaches 40 per cent at z < 1. Quenching implies the presence of a bulge: the abundance of massive red discs is negligible at all redshifts over 2 dex in stellar mass. However, the dominant quenching mechanism evolves. At z > 2, the SMF of quiescent galaxies above M* is dominated by compact spheroids. Quenching at this early epoch destroys the disc and produces a compact remnant unless the star-forming progenitors at even higher redshifts are significantly more dense. At 1 < z < 2, the majority of newly quenched galaxies are discs with a significant central bulge. This suggests that mass quenching at this epoch starts from the inner parts and preserves the disc. At z < 1, the high-mass end of the passive SMF is globally in place and the evolution mostly happens at stellar masses below 1010 M⊙. These low-mass galaxies are compact, bulge-dominated systems, which were environmentally quenched: destruction of the disc through ram-pressure stripping is the likely process.