Red galaxy growth and the halo occupation distribution

Michael J.I. Brown, Zheng Zheng, Martin White, Arjun Dey, Buell T. Jannuzi, Andrew J. Benson, Kate Brand, Mark Brodwin, Darren J. Croton

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

161 Scopus citations

Abstract

We have traced the past 7 Gyr of red galaxy stellar mass growth within dark matter halos. We have determined the halo occupation distribution, which describes how galaxies reside within dark matter halos, using the observed luminosity function and clustering of 40,696 0.2 < z < 1.0 red galaxies in Boötes. Half of ≃1011.9 h-1 M halos host a red central galaxy, and this fraction increases with increasing halo mass. We do not observe any evolution of the relationship between red galaxy stellar mass and host halo mass, although we expect both galaxy stellar masses and halo masses to evolve over cosmic time. We find that the stellar mass contained within the red population has doubled since z=l, with the stellar mass within red satellite galaxies tripling over this redshift range. In cluster mass halos (>1014 h-1 M) most of the stellar mass resides within satellite galaxies and the intracluster light, with a minority of the stellar mass residing within central galaxies. The stellar masses of the most luminous red central galaxies are proportional to halo mass to the power of ≃0.35. We thus conclude that halo mergers do not always lead to rapid growth of central galaxies. While very massive halos often double in mass over the past 7 Gyr, the stellar masses of their central galaxies typically grow by only ≃30%.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)937-963
Number of pages27
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume682
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Galaxies: elliptical and lenticular, cD
  • Galaxies: evolution
  • Galaxies: luminosity function, mass function
  • Large-scale structure of universe

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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