The formation and build-up of the red-sequence over the past 9 Gyr in VIPERS

What is it about?

We present the Luminosity Function (LF) and Colour-Magnitude Relation (CMR) using ~45000 galaxies drawn from the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). Using different selection criteria, we define several samples of early-type galaxies and explore their impact on the evolution of the red-sequence (RS) and the effects of dust. Our results suggest a rapid build-up of the RS within a short time scale. We find a rise in the number density of early-type galaxies and a strong evolution in LF and CMR. Massive galaxies exist already 9 Gyr ago and experience an efficient quenching of their star formation at z=1, followed by a passive evolution with only limited merging activity. In contrast, low-mass galaxies indicate a different mass assembly history and cause a slow build-up of the CMR over cosmic time.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS) is mapping out the Uni- verse at 0.5<z<1.2 using spectroscopic redshifts of 100k galaxies with I_AB<22.5 in two sky regions over 24 deg^2. Based on complementary precise UV to IR photometry, this unique dataset provides unprecedented detail on the statistical properties of galaxies and evolution of structure at intermediate redshifts (Guzzo et al. 2014).