Where stars form and live at high redshift: clues from the infrared

Abstract

The relation between dark matter halos and the loci of star formation at high redshift is a pressing question in contemporary cosmology. Matching the abundance of halos to the abundance of infrared (IR) galaxies, we explicit the link between dark matter halo mass (Mh), stellar mass (M*) and star-formation rate (SFR) up to a redshift of 2. Our findings are five-fold. First, we find a strong evolution of the relation between M* and SFR as a function of redshift with an increase of sSFR = SFR/M* by a factor ~30 between z=0 and z= 2.3. Second, we observe a decrease of sSFR with stellar mass. These results reproduce observed trends at redshift z>0.3. Third, we find that the star formation is most efficient in dark matter halos with Mh~5x10^11 Msun, with hints of an increase of this mass with redshift. Fourth, we find that SFR/Mh increases by a factor ~15 between z = 0 and z = 2.3. Finally we find that the SFR density is dominated by halo masses close to ~7x10^11 Msun at all redshift, with a rapid decrease at lower and higher halo masses. Despite its simplicity, our novel use of IR observations unveils some characteristic mass-scales governing star formation at high redshift.