Redshift evolution of stellar mass versus gas fraction relation in 0<z<2 regime: observational constraint for galaxy formation models
Abstract
We investigate the redshift evolution of the molecular gas mass fraction (fmol=Mmol/(Mstar+Mmol), where Mmol is molecular gas mass and Mstar is stellar mass) of galaxies in the redshift range of 0<z<2 as a function of the stellar mass by combining CO literature data. We observe a stellar-mass dependence of the fmol evolution where massive galaxies have largely depleted their molecular gas at z=1, whereas the fmol value of less massive galaxies drastically decreases from z=1. We compare the observed Mstar-fmol relation with theoretical predictions from cosmological hydrodynamic simulations and semi-analytical models for galaxy formation. Although the theoretical studies approximately reproduce the observed mass dependence of fmol evolution, they tend to underestimate the fmol values, particularly of less massive (<1010 Msun) and massive galaxies (>1011 Msun) when compared with the observational values. Our result suggests the importance of the feedback models which suppress the star formation while simultaneously preserving the molecular gas in order to reproduce the observed Mstar-fmol relation.
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