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Register a new userThe high mass end of the stellar mass function: Dependence on stellar population models and agreement between fits to the light profile
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Mariangela Bernardi
Publication date
2016
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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We quantify the systematic effects on the stellar mass function which arise from assumptions about the stellar population, as well as how one fits the light profiles of the most luminous galaxies at z ~ 0.1. When comparing results from the literature, we are careful to separate out these effects. Our analysis shows that while systematics in the estimated comoving number density which arise from different treatments of the stellar population remain of order < 0.5 dex, systematics in photometry are now about 0.1 dex, despite recent claims in the literature. Compared to these more recent analyses, previous work based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) pipeline photometry leads to underestimates of rho_*(> M_*) by factors of 3-10 in the mass range 10^11 - 10^11.6 M_Sun, but up to a factor of 100 at higher stellar masses. This impacts studies which match massive galaxies to dark matter halos. Although systematics which arise from different treatments of the stellar population remain of order < 0.5 dex, our finding that systematics in photometry now amount to only about 0.1 dex in the stellar mass density is a significant improvement with respect to a decade ago. Our results highlight the importance of using the same stellar population and photometric models whenever low and high redshift samples are compared.
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We have undertaken the largest systematic study of the high-mass stellar initial mass function (IMF) to date using the optical color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) of 85 resolved, young (4 Myr < t < 25 Myr), intermediate mass star clusters (10^3-10^4 Msun), observed as part of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) program. We fit each clusters CMD to measure its mass function (MF) slope for stars >2 Msun. For the ensemble of clusters, the distribution of stellar MF slopes is best described by $Gamma=+1.45^{+0.03}_{-0.06}$ with a very small intrinsic scatter. The data also imply no significant dependencies of the MF slope on cluster age, mass, and size, providing direct observational evidence that the measured MF represents the IMF. This analysis implies that the high-mass IMF slope in M31 clusters is universal with a slope ($Gamma=+1.45^{+0.03}_{-0.06}$) that is steeper than the canonical Kroupa (+1.30) and Salpeter (+1.35) values. Using our inference model on select Milky Way (MW) and LMC high-mass IMF studies from the literature, we find $Gamma_{rm MW} sim+1.15pm0.1$ and $Gamma_{rm LMC} sim+1.3pm0.1$, both with intrinsic scatter of ~0.3-0.4 dex. Thus, while the high-mass IMF in the Local Group may be universal, systematics in literature IMF studies preclude any definitive conclusions; homogenous investigations of the high-mass IMF in the local universe are needed to overcome this limitation. Consequently, the present study represents the most robust measurement of the high-mass IMF slope to date. We have grafted the M31 high-mass IMF slope onto widely used sub-solar mass Kroupa and Chabrier IMFs and show that commonly used UV- and Halpha-based star formation rates should be increased by a factor of ~1.3-1.5 and the number of stars with masses >8 Msun are ~25% fewer than expected for a Salpeter/Kroupa IMF. [abridged]
Context. The study of the galaxy stellar mass function (SMF) in relation to the galaxy environment and the stellar mass density profile, rho(r), is a powerful tool to constrain models of galaxy evolution. Aims. We determine the SMF of the z=0.44 cluster of galaxies MACS J1206.2-0847 separately for passive and star-forming (SF) galaxies, in different regions of the cluster, from the center out to approximately 2 virial radii. We also determine rho(r) to compare it to the number density and total mass density profiles. Methods. We use the dataset from the CLASH-VLT survey. Stellar masses are obtained by SED fitting on 5-band photometric data obtained at the Subaru telescope. We identify 1363 cluster members down to a stellar mass of 10^9.5 Msolar. Results. The whole cluster SMF is well fitted by a double Schechter function. The SMFs of cluster SF and passive galaxies are statistically different. The SMF of the SF cluster galaxies does not depend on the environment. The SMF of the passive population has a significantly smaller slope (in absolute value) in the innermost (<0.50 Mpc), highest density cluster region, than in more external, lower density regions. The number ratio of giant/subgiant galaxies is maximum in this innermost region and minimum in the adjacent region, but then gently increases again toward the cluster outskirts. This is also reflected in a decreasing radial trend of the average stellar mass per cluster galaxy. On the other hand, the stellar mass fraction, i.e., the ratio of stellar to total cluster mass, does not show any significant radial trend. Conclusions. Our results appear consistent with a scenario in which SF galaxies evolve into passive galaxies due to density-dependent environmental processes, and eventually get destroyed very near the cluster center to become part of a diffuse intracluster medium.
We present new measurements of the very low-mass end of the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF) at $zsim6-7$ computed from a rest-frame ultraviolet selected sample of dropout galaxies. These galaxies lie behind the six Hubble Frontier Fields clusters and are all gravitationally magnified. Using deep Spitzer/IRAC and Hubble Space Telescope imaging, we derive stellar masses by fitting galaxy spectral energy distributions and explore the impact of different model assumptions and parameter degeneracies on the resulting GSMF. Our sample probes stellar masses down to $M_{star}>10^{6},text{M}_{odot}$ and we find the $zsim6-7$ GSMF to be best parametrized by a modified Schechter function which allows for a turnover at very low masses. Using a Monte-Carlo Markov Chain analysis of the GSMF, including accurate treatment of lensing uncertainties, we obtain a relatively steep low-mass end slope $alphasimeq-1.96_{-0.08}^{+0.09}$ and a turnover at $log(M_T/text{M}_{odot})simeq7.10_{-0.56}^{+0.17}$ with a curvature of $betasimeq1.00_{-0.73}^{+0.87}$ for our minimum assumption model with constant star-formation history (SFH) and low dust attenuation, $A_Vleq0.2$. We find that the $zsim6-7$ GSMF, in particular its very low-mass end, is significantly affected by the assumed functional form of the star formation history and the degeneracy between stellar mass and dust attenuation. For example, the low-mass end slope ranges from $alphasimeq-1.82_{-0.07}^{+0.08}$ for an exponentially rising SFH to $alphasimeq-2.34_{-0.10}^{+0.11}$ when allowing $A_V$ of up to 3.25. Future observations at longer wavelengths and higher angular resolution with the James Webb Space Telescope are required to break these degeneracies and to robustly constrain the stellar mass of galaxies on the extreme low-mass end of the GSMF.
At the highest redshifts, z>6, several tens of luminous quasars have been detected. The search for fainter AGN, in deep X-ray surveys, has proven less successful, with few candidates to date. An extrapolation of the relationship between black hole (BH) and bulge mass would predict that the sample of z>6 galaxies host relatively massive BHs (>1e6 Msun), if one assumes that total stellar mass is a good proxy for bulge mass. At least a few of these BHs should be luminous enough to be detectable in the 4Ms CDFS. The relation between BH and stellar mass defined by local moderate-luminosity AGN in low-mass galaxies, however, has a normalization that is lower by approximately an order of magnitude compared to the BH-bulge mass relation. We explore how this scaling changes the interpretation of AGN in the high-z Universe. Despite large uncertainties, driven by those in the stellar mass function, and in the extrapolation of local relations, one can explain the current non-detection of moderate-luminosity AGN in Lyman Break Galaxies if galaxies below 1e11 Msun are characterized by the low-normalization scaling, and, even more so, if their Eddington ratio is also typical of moderate-luminosity AGN rather than luminous quasars. AGN being missed by X-ray searches due to obscuration or instrinsic X-ray weakness also remain a possibility.
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