Galaxy cosmological mass function

Abstract

Aims. This paper studies the galaxy cosmological mass function (GCMF) in a semi-empirical relativistic approach that uses observational data provided by recent galaxy redshift surveys. Methods. Starting from a previously presented relation between the mass-to-light ratio, the selection function obtained from the luminosity function (LF) data and the luminosity density, the average luminosity L, and the average galactic mass Mg were computed in terms of the redshift. Mg was also alternatively estimated by means of a method that uses the galaxy stellar mass function (GSMF). Comparison of these two forms of deriving the average galactic mass allowed us to infer a possible bias introduced by the selection criteria of the survey. We used the FORS Deep Field galaxy survey sample of 5558 galaxies in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 5.0 and its LF Schechter parameters in the B-band, as well as this sample’s stellar mass-to-light ratio and its GSMF data.