LARgE Survey - I. Dead monsters: the massive end of the passive galaxy stellar mass function at cosmic noon
Abstract
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^\ast parameters for quiescent and star-forming populations (ours and from the literature), we find hints of an offset (M^\ast _{ SF}> M^\ast _{ PE}), which could suggest that the efficiency of the quenching process evolves with time.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- July 2019
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stz1169
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1904.11654
- Bibcode:
- 2019MNRAS.486.4880A
- Keywords:
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- galaxies: evolution;
- galaxies: formation;
- galaxies: luminosity function;
- mass function;
- galaxies: statistics;
- Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies
- E-Print:
- Accepted for publication by MNRAS