%0 Generic %1 Nicol2010 %A Nicol, Marie-Helene %A Meisenheimer, Klaus %A Wolf, Christian %A Tapken, Christian %D 2010 %K arxiv red-sequence %T Red-Sequence Galaxies at High Redshift by the COMBO-17+4 Survey %U http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.4067 %X We investigate the evolution of the galaxy population since redshift 2 with a focus on the colour bimodality and mass density of the red sequence. We obtain precise and reliable photometric redshifts up to z=2 by supplementing the optical survey COMBO-17 with observations in four near-infrared bands on 0.2 square degrees of the COMBO-17 A901-field. Our results are based on an H-band-selected catalogue of 10692 galaxies complete to H=21.7. We measure the rest-frame colour (U_280-V) of each galaxy, which across the redshift range of our interest requires no extrapolation and is robust against moderate redshift errors by staying clear of the 4000A-break. We measure the colour-magnitude relation of the red sequence as a function of lookback time from the peak in a colour error-weighted histogram, and thus trace the galaxy bimodality out to z~1.65. The (U_280-V) of the red sequence is found to evolve almost linearly with lookback time. At high redshift, we find massive galaxies in both the red and the blue population. Red-sequence galaxies with log M_*/M_sun>11 increase in mass density by a factor of ~4 from z~2 to 1 and remain nearly constant at z<1. However, some galaxies as massive as log M_*/M_sun=11.5 are already in place at z~2.

@misc{Nicol2010, abstract = { We investigate the evolution of the galaxy population since redshift 2 with a focus on the colour bimodality and mass density of the red sequence. We obtain precise and reliable photometric redshifts up to z=2 by supplementing the optical survey COMBO-17 with observations in four near-infrared bands on 0.2 square degrees of the COMBO-17 A901-field. Our results are based on an H-band-selected catalogue of 10692 galaxies complete to H=21.7. We measure the rest-frame colour (U_280-V) of each galaxy, which across the redshift range of our interest requires no extrapolation and is robust against moderate redshift errors by staying clear of the 4000A-break. We measure the colour-magnitude relation of the red sequence as a function of lookback time from the peak in a colour error-weighted histogram, and thus trace the galaxy bimodality out to z~1.65. The (U_280-V) of the red sequence is found to evolve almost linearly with lookback time. At high redshift, we find massive galaxies in both the red and the blue population. Red-sequence galaxies with log M_*/M_sun>11 increase in mass density by a factor of ~4 from z~2 to 1 and remain nearly constant at z<1. However, some galaxies as massive as log M_*/M_sun=11.5 are already in place at z~2. }, added-at = {2010-11-19T02:54:39.000+0100}, author = {Nicol, Marie-Helene and Meisenheimer, Klaus and Wolf, Christian and Tapken, Christian}, biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/219cb8a9e86e60c04ae994cb2470c3e21/jimmies}, description = {Red-Sequence Galaxies at High Redshift by the COMBO-17+4 Survey}, interhash = {0a6f038af2b2f36b5e8e9e368a9887e8}, intrahash = {19cb8a9e86e60c04ae994cb2470c3e21}, keywords = {arxiv red-sequence}, note = {cite arxiv:1011.4067 Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ}, timestamp = {2010-11-19T02:54:39.000+0100}, title = {Red-Sequence Galaxies at High Redshift by the COMBO-17+4 Survey}, url = {http://arxiv.org/abs/1011.4067}, year = 2010 }