Galaxy Mass Growth in GDDS and SDSS

TL;DR

This paper presents new measurements of galaxy stellar and baryonic mass functions across different redshifts, refining previous estimates and revealing a potential steepness similar to dark matter halo distributions.

Contribution

It introduces a refined method for estimating baryonic mass including unseen HI, and compares galaxy mass functions at high and low redshifts.

Findings

Refined stellar mass-to-light ratios using Spitzer data.

Baryonic mass function may be as steep as dark matter halo mass function.

Potential implications for galaxy formation models.

Abstract

I present some new results related to our understanding of the masses of galaxies both in the local and high-redshift Universe. At high-redshift new Spitzer data on galaxies in the Gemini Deep Deep Survey allow us a more accurate measure of stellar mass to light ratios (using rest frame near-IR light) showing a refinement of the measurements but not great discrepancies. In the local universe a new method is explored to estimate the baryonic mass function of galaxies including contributions from unseen HI. This points to an interesting result: that the baryonic mass function of galaxies may in fact be quite steep, of comparable slope to the mass function of dark matter haloes.