The integrated stellar content of dark matter halos

Abstract

Measurements of the total amount of stars locked up in galaxies as a function of host halo mass contain key clues about the efficiency of processes that regulate star formation. We derive the total stellar mass fraction f ⊙ (excluding stars in the intracluster light) as a function of halo mass M500c from z = 0.2 to z = 1 using two complementary methods. First, we derive f⊙ using a statistical Halo Occupation Distribution model jointly constrained by data from lensing, clustering, and the stellar mass function. This method enables us to probe f⊙ over a much wider halo mass range than with group or cluster catalogs. Second, we derive f⊙ at group scales using a COSMOS X-ray group catalog and show that the two methods agree to within 30%. We quantify the systematic uncertainty on f⊙ using abundance matching methods and show that the statistical uncertainty on f⊙ (10%) is dwarfed by systematic uncertainties associated with stellar mass measurements (45% excluding initial mass function, IMF, uncertainties). Assuming a Chabrier IMF, we find 0.012 ≤ f⊙ ≤ 0.025 at M500c = 10 13 M⊙ and 0.0057 ≤ f⊙ ≤ 0.015 at M500c = 1014 M⊙. These values are significantly lower than previously published estimates. We investigate the cause of this difference and find that previous work has overestimated f ⊙ owing to a combination of inaccurate stellar mass estimators and/or because they have assumed that all galaxies in groups are early-type galaxies with a constant mass-to-light ratio. Contrary to previous claims, our results suggest that the mean value of f⊙ is always significantly lower than fgas for halos above 1013 M ⊙. Combining our results with recently published gas mass fractions, we find a shortfall in f⊙ + fgas at R 500c compared to the cosmic mean. This shortfall varies with halo mass and becomes larger toward lower halo masses. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.