GAMA/G10-COSMOS/3D-HST: the 0 < z < 5 cosmic star formation history, stellar-mass, and dust-mass densities

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 475; no. 3; pp. 2891 - 2935
• Main Authors: Driver, Simon P, Andrews, Stephen K, da Cunha, Elisabete, Davies, Luke J, Lagos, Claudia, Robotham, Aaron S G, Vinsen, Kevin, Wright, Angus H, Alpaslan, Mehmet, Bland-Hawthorn, Joss, Bourne, Nathan, Brough, Sarah, Bremer, Malcolm N, Cluver, Michelle, Colless, Matthew, Conselice, Christopher J, Dunne, Loretta, Eales, Steve A, Gomez, Haley, Holwerda, Benne, Hopkins, Andrew M, Kafle, Prajwal R, Kelvin, Lee S, Loveday, Jon, Liske, Jochen, Maddox, Steve J, Phillipps, Steven, Pimbblet, Kevin, Rowlands, Kate, Sansom, Anne E, Taylor, Edward, Wang, Lingyu, Wilkins, Stephen M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Oxford University Press 01-04-2018
• Subjects: Cosmic dust; Cosmos; Density; Dust; Ejection; Galaxies; Initial mass function; Interstellar matter; Red shift; Replenishment; Star & galaxy formation; Star formation; Stellar evolution; Stellar mass; Universe; cosmology: observations; galaxies: general; galaxies: evolution; astronomical data bases: miscellaneous; galaxies: photometry; galaxies: individual
• ISSN: 0035-8711; 1365-2966
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stx2728

Abstract
We use the energy-balance code magphys to determine stellar and dust masses, and dust corrected star formation rates for over 200 000 GAMA galaxies, 170 000 G10-COSMOS galaxies, and 200 000 3D-HST galaxies. Our values agree well with previously reported measurements and constitute a representative and homogeneous data set spanning a broad range in stellar-mass (108–1012 M⊙), dust-mass (106–109 M⊙), and star formation rates (0.01–100 M⊙yr−1), and over a broad redshift range (0.0 < z < 5.0). We combine these data to measure the cosmic star formation history (CSFH), the stellar-mass density (SMD), and the dust-mass density (DMD) over a 12 Gyr timeline. The data mostly agree with previous estimates, where they exist, and provide a quasi-homogeneous data set using consistent mass and star formation estimators with consistent underlying assumptions over the full time range. As a consequence our formal errors are significantly reduced when compared to the historic literature. Integrating our CSFH we precisely reproduce the SMD
with an interstellar medium replenishment factor of 0.50 ± 0.07, consistent with our choice of Chabrier initial mass function plus some modest amount of stripped stellar mass. Exploring the cosmic dust density evolution, we find a gradual increase in dust density with lookback time. We build a simple phenomenological model from the CSFH to account for the dust-mass evolution, and infer two key conclusions: (1) For every unit of stellar mass which is formed 0.0065–0.004 units of dust mass is also formed. (2) Over the history of the Universe approximately 90–95 per cent of all dust formed has been destroyed and/or ejected.