Baryonic conversion tree: the global assembly of stars and dark matter in galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Using the spectroscopic sample of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 1 (SDSS DR1), we measure how gas was transformed into stars as a function of time and stellar mass: the baryonic conversion tree (BCT). There is a clear correlation between early star formation activity and present-day stellar mass: the more massive galaxies have formed approximately 80 per cent of their stars at z > 1, while for the less massive ones the value is only approximately 20 per cent. By comparing the BCT with the dark matter merger tree, we find indications that star formation efficiency at z > 1 had to be approximately a factor of two higher than today (~10 per cent) in galaxies with present-day stellar mass larger than 2 × 10¹¹M_solar, if this early star formation occurred in the main progenitor. Therefore, the λ cold dark matter (LCDM) paradigm can accommodate a large number of red objects. On the other hand, in galaxies with present-day stellar mass less than 10¹¹M_solar, efficient star formation seems to have been triggered at z~ 0.2. We show that there is a characteristic mass (M_*~ 10¹⁰M_solar) for feedback efficiency (or lack of star formation). For galaxies with masses lower than this, feedback (or star formation suppression) is very efficient while for higher masses it is not. The BCT, determined here for the first time, should be an important observable with which to confront theoretical models of galaxy formation.