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  • The Evolving Luminosity Fun...
    Brown, Michael J. I; Dey, Arjun; Jannuzi, Buell T; Brand, Kate; Benson, Andrew J; Brodwin, Mark; Croton, Darren J; Eisenhardt, Peter R

    Astrophysical journal/˜The œAstrophysical journal, 01/2007, Letnik: 654, Številka: 2
    Journal Article

    We trace the assembly history of red galaxies since z = 1 by measuring their evolving space density with the B-band luminosity function. Our sample of 39,599 red galaxies, selected from 6.96 deg super(2) of imaging from the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey and the Spitzer IRAC Shallow Survey, is an order of magnitude larger, in size and volume, than comparable samples in the literature. We measure a higher space density of z 6 0.9 red galaxies than some of the recent literature, in part because we account for the faint yet significant galaxy flux that falls outside of our photometric aperture. The B-band luminosity density of red galaxies, which effectively measures the evolution of 6L* galaxies, increases by only 36% c 13% from z = 0 to z = 1. If red galaxy stellar populations have faded by 1.24 B-band magnitudes since z = 1, the stellar mass contained within the red galaxy population has roughly doubled over the past 8 Gyr. This is consistent with star-forming galaxies being transformed into L* red galaxies after a decline in their star formation rates. In contrast, the evolution of 4L* red galaxies differs only slightly from a model with negligible z<1 star formation and no galaxy mergers. If this model approximates the luminosity evolution of red galaxy stellar populations, then 80% of the stellar mass contained within today's 4L* red galaxies was already in place at z = 0.7. While red galaxy mergers have been observed, such mergers do not produce rapid growth of 4L* red galaxy stellar masses between z = 1 and the present day.