Subhalo abundance matching using progenitor mass at varying redshift: Two modes of stellar mass growth imprinted into the Subaru HSC galaxy clustering

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new subhalo abundance matching model using progenitor mass at varying redshifts to better predict galaxy clustering, revealing insights into galaxy growth modes and improving over traditional models.

Contribution

The study proposes a novel $M_{prog}$-based SHAM model with a redshift parameter, demonstrating improved clustering predictions and insights into galaxy mass growth mechanisms.

Findings

$M_{prog}$ model accurately reproduces observed galaxy clustering.

It outperforms the $V_{peak}$ model at small scales.

The redshift parameter $z_{prog}$ varies with galaxy mass, indicating different growth modes.

Abstract

We propose a novel subhalo abundance matching (SHAM) model that uses the virial mass of the main progenitor of each (sub)halo $M_{\rm prog}$ as a proxy of the galaxy stellar mass $M_*$ at the time of observation. This $M_{\rm prog}$ model predicts the two-point correlation functions depending on the choice of the epoch $z_{\rm prog}$ at which $M_\mathrm{prog}$ is quoted. With $z_{\rm prog}$ as a fitting parameter, we apply the $M_{\rm prog}$ model to the angular correlation functions measured with varying stellar mass thresholds from $M_{*,~{\rm lim}}/(h^{-2}M_\odot)=10^{11}$ to $10^{8.6}$ using a sample of galaxies at $z\simeq0.4$ from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey. The $M_{\rm prog}$ model can reproduce the observations very well over $10~h^{-1}{\rm kpc}\textrm{--}10~h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$. We find that, for the samples of $10^{9.2}\leq M_{*,~{\rm lim}}/(h^{-2}M_\odot)\leq10^{10.2}$, the correlation functions predicted by the widely-used $V_{\rm peak}$ model lack amplitudes at $\lesssim1~h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$, suggesting that $M_{\rm prog}$ is a better proxy of the galaxy stellar mass than conventional $V_{\rm peak}$. The $z_{\rm prog}$ parameter is highest ($z_{\rm prog}\simeq3$) for intermediate mass galaxies at $M_*\simeq10^{9.9}~h^{-2}M_\odot$, and becomes smaller down to $z_\mathrm{prog}\simeq1$ for both lower- and higher-mass galaxies. We interpret these trends as reflecting the downsizing in the in-situ star formation in lower-mass galaxies and the larger contribution of the ex-situ stellar mass growth in higher-mass galaxies.