We characterize the mass-dependent evolution in a large sample of more than 8,000 galaxies using spectroscopic redshifts drawn from the DEEP2 Galaxy Redshift Survey in the range 0.4 < z < 1.4 and stellar masses calculated from K-band photometry obtained at Palomar Observatory. This sample spans more than 1.5 square degrees in four independent fields. Using restframe (U − B) color and [OII] equivalent widths, we distinguish star-forming from passive populations in order to explore the nature of "downsizing"-a pattern in which the sites of active star formation shift from high mass galaxies at early times to lower mass systems at later epochs. Over the redshift range probed, we identify a mass limit, M Q , above which star formation appears to be quenched. The physical mechanisms responsible for downsizing can thus be empirically quantified by charting the evolution in this threshold mass. We find that M Q decreases with time by a factor of ≈3 across the redshift range sampled according to M Q ∝ (1 + z) 3.5 . We demonstrate that this behavior is quite robust to the use of various indicators of star formation activity, including morphological type. To further constrain possible quenching mechanisms, we investigate how this downsizing signal depends on local galaxy environment using the projected 3 rd -nearest-neighbor statistic D p,3 which is particularly well-suited for large spectroscopic samples. For the majority of galaxies in regions near the median density, there is no significant correlation between downsizing and environment. However, a trend is observed in the comparison between more extreme environments that are more than 3 times overdense or underdense relative to the median. Here, we find that downsizing is accelerated in overdense regions which host higher numbers of massive, early-type galaxies and fewer late-types as compared to the underdense regions. Our results significantly constrain recent suggestions for the origin of downsizing and indicate that the process for quenching star formation must, primarily, be internally driven. By quantifying both the time and density dependence of downsizing, our survey provides a valuable benchmark for galaxy models incorporating baryon physics.

We investigate the evolution of substructure in cold dark matter halos using N-body simulations of tidal stripping of substructure halos (subhalos) within a static host potential. We find that halos modeled following the Navarro, Frenk & White (NFW) mass profile lose mass continuously due to tides from the massive host, leading to the total disruption of satellite halos with small tidal radii. The structure of stripped NFW halos depends mainly on the fraction of mass lost, and can be expressed in terms of a simple correction to the original NFW profile. We apply these results to substructure in the Milky Way, and conclude that the dark matter halos surrounding its dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellites have circular velocity curves that peak well beyond the luminous radius at velocities significantly higher than expected from the stellar velocity dispersion. Our modeling suggests that the true tidal radii of dSphs lie well beyond the putative tidal cutoff observed in the surface brightness profile, suggesting that the latter are not really tidal in origin but rather features in the light profile of limited dynamical relevance. For Draco, in particular, our modeling implies that its tidal radius is much larger than derived by Irwin & Hatzidimitriou (1995), lending support to the interpretation of recent Sloan survey data by Odenkirchen et al. (2001). Similarly, our model suggests that Carina's halo has a peak circular velocity of ~55 km/s, which may help explain how this small galaxy has managed to retain enough gas to undergo several bursts of star formation. Our results imply a close correspondence between the most massive subhalos expected in a CDM universe and the known satellites of the Milky Way, and suggest that only subhalos with peak circular velocities below 35 km/s lack readily detectable luminous counterparts.Comment: 28 pages, 14 figures; accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Using data from the COSMOS survey, we perform the first joint analysis of galaxy-galaxy weak lensing, galaxy spatial clustering, and galaxy number densities. Carefully accounting for sample variance and for scatter between stellar and halo mass, we model all three observables simultaneously using a novel and self-consistent theoretical framework. Our results provide strong constraints on the shape and redshift evolution of the stellar-to-halo mass relation (SHMR) from z = 0.2 to z = 1. At low stellar mass, we find that halo mass scales as M h ∝ M 0.46 * and that this scaling does not evolve significantly with redshift from z = 0.2 to z = 1. The slope of the SHMR rises sharply at M * > 5 × 10 10 M ⊙ and as a consequence, the stellar mass of a central galaxy becomes a poor tracer of its parent halo mass. We show that the dark-to-stellar ratio, M h /M * , varies from low to high masses, reaching a minimum of M h /M * ∼ 27 at M * = 4.5 × 10 10 M ⊙ and M h = 1.2 × 10 12 M ⊙ . This minimum is important for models of galaxy formation because it marks the mass at which the accumulated stellar growth of the central galaxy has been the most efficient. We describe the SHMR at this minimum in terms of the "pivot stellar mass", M piv * , the "pivot halo mass", M piv h , and the "pivot ratio", (M h /M * ) piv . Thanks to a homogeneous analysis of a single data set spanning a large redshift range, we report the first detection of mass downsizing trends for both M piv h and M piv * . The pivot stellar mass decreases from M piv * = 5.75±0.13×10 10 M ⊙ at z = 0.88 to M piv * = 3.55±0.17×10 10 M ⊙ at z = 0.37. Intriguingly, however, the corresponding evolution of M piv h leaves the pivot ratio constant with redshift at (M h /M * ) piv ∼ 27. We use simple arguments to show how this result raises the possibility that star formation quenching may ultimately depend on M h /M * and not simply M h , as is commonly assumed. We show that simple models with such a dependence naturally lead to downsizing in the sites of star formation. Finally, we discuss the implications of our results in the context of popular quenching models, including disk instabilities and AGN feedback.

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