CaltechAUTHORS
Published May 2007 | Version Published
Journal Article Open

The Rest-Frame K-Band Luminosity Function of Galaxies in Clusters to z = 1.3

Creators

  • 1. ROR icon Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
  • 2. ROR icon University of Bristol
  • 3. ROR icon University of California, Davis
  • 4. ROR icon Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
  • 5. ROR icon Jet Propulsion Lab
  • 6. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 7. ROR icon University of California, Santa Cruz
  • 8. ROR icon European Southern Observatory

Abstract

We derive the rest-frame K-band luminosity function for galaxies in 32 clusters at 0.6 < z < 1.3 using deep 3.6 and 4.5 μm imaging from the Spitzer Space Telescope Infrared Array Camera. The luminosity functions approximate the stellar mass function of the cluster galaxies. Their dependence on redshift indicates that massive cluster galaxies (to the characteristic luminosity M^*_K) are fully assembled at least at z ~ 1.3 and that little significant accretion takes place at later times. The existence of massive, highly evolved galaxies at these epochs is likely to represent a significant challenge to theories of hierarchical structure formation where such objects are formed by the late accretion of spheroidal systems at z < 1.

Additional Information

© 2007 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2006 October 25; accepted 2007 January 31. We would like to acknowledge the anonymous referee for an informative report that helped make the paper clearer. We also thank Steve Willner for some comments on this paper. This work is based on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA. R. D. P. acknowledges support from a PPARC grant while at the University of Bristol. S. A. S.'s work was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration, by the University of California, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, under contract W-7405-Eng-48.

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
16730
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20091117-112702002

Funding

NASA
Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC)
Department of Energy (DOE)
W-7405-ENG-48

Dates

Created
2009-11-25
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2021-11-08
Created from EPrint's last_modified field