The Evolution of Galaxy Number Density at z < 8 and its Implications

TL;DR

This study analyzes galaxy number density evolution up to redshift 8 using stellar mass functions, revealing a decrease in total galaxy count over time and implications for cosmic background light and Olbers' paradox.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed measurement of galaxy number density evolution up to z~8, highlighting a t^{-1} decline for galaxies above 10^6 M_sun and estimating a total of two trillion galaxies.

Findings

Total galaxy number density decreases as t^{-1} for M_* > 10^6 M_sun.

Estimated total galaxies up to z=8 is approximately 2 trillion.

Results suggest unobserved faint galaxies contribute significantly to cosmic background light.

Abstract

The evolution of the number density of galaxies in the universe, and thus also the total number of galaxies, is a fundamental question with implications for a host of astrophysical problems including galaxy evolution and cosmology. However there has never been a detailed study of this important measurement, nor a clear path to answer it. To address this we use observed galaxy stellar mass functions up to $z\sim8$ to determine how the number densities of galaxies changes as a function of time and mass limit. We show that the increase in the total number density of galaxies ($\phi_{\rm T}$), more massive than M$_{*} = 10^{6}$ M_0, decreases as $\phi_{\rm T} \sim t^{-1}$, where $t$ is the age of the universe. We further show that this evolution turns-over and rather increases with time at higher mass lower limits of M$_{*}>10^{7}$ M_0. By using the M$_{*}=10^{6}$ M_0 lower limit we further show that the total number of galaxies in the universe up to $z = 8$ is $2.0^{+0.7}_{-0.6} \times 10^{12}$ (two trillion), almost a factor of ten higher than would be seen in an all sky survey at Hubble Ultra-Deep Field depth. We discuss the implications for these results for galaxy evolution, as well as compare our results with the latest models of galaxy formation. These results also reveal that the cosmic background light in the optical and near-infrared likely arise from these unobserved faint galaxies. We also show how these results solve the question of why the sky at night is dark, otherwise known as Olbers' paradox.