Growth from KiDS: Stellar mass assembly of galaxies since z=2 in the light of Kilo-Degree Survey
Abstract
We measure the galaxy stellar mass function at z = 0−2 using 28M galaxies from the KiDS DR4 which spans an effective survey area of 676.9 deg2. Combining nine-band photometry (u--Ks) and redshifts derived using deep learning photometry, we use five SED fitting configurations, CIGALE/LePhare and CB19/BC03/M05 Stellar Population Synthesis (SPS). We present the impact of the systematics related to the code, SPS modeling and Star formation History (SFH) , which combined can introduce systematics of ∼ 0.6 dex. The GSMFs outlined in this work agree well with previous studies (within the uncertainties introduced by systematics) that typically are able to cover measurements for the GSMF only up to log(M*/M⊙)∼ 11.75, due to their limited volume. The large KiDS area and galaxy counts, allows us to gain some insights on the ``extreme" high-mass end, and our GSMFs imply that possibly there are more massive galaxies than we would expect, from a simple exponential cut-off, at log(M*/M⊙)>11.75. However, we heed caution that despite advances done both in redshift estimation techniques and SPS, future studies are required to confirm this behavior. We consider the effects of Eddington-bias (EB) to our observations via two different methods and compare our results with the predictions of semi-analytic models and hydrodynamical simulations. We use the Mean Absolute Difference (MAD) of residuals as a diagnostic metric. Due to inconsistencies (> 0.5 dex) between observations and Eddington biased simulations found, especially at the high mass end, we suggest that some theoretical models would achieve better performance once parameter tuning takes into account the effects of EB prior to the tuning of the uncertain parameters involved related to stellar physics and feedback.
Related
- The assembly of dusty galaxies at z ≥ 4: grain growth and the evolutionary origin of the dust-to-stellar-mass scatter
- The MAGPI survey: Stellar population radial trends and mass assembly in star-forming galaxies at z~0.3
- Interaction-induced star formation boosts stellar mass assembly in z∼5 galaxies
- Morphology classification for galaxies in the Kilo Degree Survey using a label-efficient self-supervised learning framework
- Morphology Classification for Galaxies in the Kilo Degree Survey Using a Label-efficient Self-supervised Learning Framework
BibTeX
@misc{wang2026growth,
title = {{Growth from KiDS: Stellar mass assembly of galaxies since z=2 in the light of Kilo-Degree Survey}},
author = {Qingshan Wang and Antonios Katsianis and Nicola R. Napolitano and Linghua Xie and Rui Li and Xiaohu Yang and Baitian Tang and Jiaxin Han and Zhenlin Tan and Lizhi Xie and Ying Tang and Yuchang Li and Hangxin Pu},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.23375},
eprint = {2609.23375},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.23375},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Growth from KiDS: Stellar mass assembly of galaxies since z=2 in the light of Kilo-Degree Survey
AU - Qingshan Wang
AU - Antonios Katsianis
AU - Nicola R. Napolitano
AU - Linghua Xie
AU - Rui Li
AU - Xiaohu Yang
AU - Baitian Tang
AU - Jiaxin Han
AU - Zhenlin Tan
AU - Lizhi Xie
AU - Ying Tang
AU - Yuchang Li
AU - Hangxin Pu
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/20
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.23375
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.23375
AB - We measure the galaxy stellar mass function at z = 0−2 using 28M galaxies from the KiDS DR4 which spans an effective survey area of 676.9 deg^2. Combining nine-band photometry (u--K_s) and redshifts derived using deep learning photometry, we use five SED fitting configurations, CIGALE/LePhare and CB19/BC03/M05 Stellar Population Synthesis (SPS). We present the impact of the systematics related to the code, SPS modeling and Star formation History (SFH) , which combined can introduce systematics of ∼ 0.6 dex. The GSMFs outlined in this work agree well with previous studies (within the uncertainties introduced by systematics) that typically are able to cover measurements for the GSMF only up to log(M_*/M_⊙)∼ 11.75, due to their limited volume. The large KiDS area and galaxy counts, allows us to gain some insights on the ``extreme" high-mass end, and our GSMFs imply that possibly there are more massive galaxies than we would expect, from a simple exponential cut-off, at log(M_*/M_⊙)>11.75. However, we heed caution that despite advances done both in redshift estimation techniques and SPS, future studies are required to confirm this behavior. We consider the effects of Eddington-bias (EB) to our observations via two different methods and compare our results with the predictions of semi-analytic models and hydrodynamical simulations. We use the Mean Absolute Difference (MAD) of residuals as a diagnostic metric. Due to inconsistencies (> 0.5 dex) between observations and Eddington biased simulations found, especially at the high mass end, we suggest that some theoretical models would achieve better performance once parameter tuning takes into account the effects of EB prior to the tuning of the uncertain parameters involved related to stellar physics and feedback.
ER -