Subhalo abundance matching using progenitor mass at varying redshift: Two modes of stellar mass growth imprinted into the Subaru HSC galaxy clustering

Abstract

We propose a novel subhalo abundance matching (SHAM) model that uses the virial mass of the main progenitor of each (sub)halo $M_{\rm prog}$ as a proxy of the galaxy stellar mass $M_*$ at the time of observation. This $M_{\rm prog}$ model predicts the two-point correlation functions depending on the choice of the epoch $z_{\rm prog}$ at which $M_\mathrm{prog}$ is quoted. With $z_{\rm prog}$ as a fitting parameter, we apply the $M_{\rm prog}$ model to the angular correlation functions measured with varying stellar mass thresholds from $M_{*,~{\rm lim}}/(h^{-2}M_\odot)=10^{11}$ to $10^{8.6}$ using a sample of galaxies at $z\simeq0.4$ from the Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam survey. The $M_{\rm prog}$ model can reproduce the observations very well over $10~h^{-1}{\rm kpc}\textrm{--}10~h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$. We find that, for the samples of $10^{9.2}\leq M_{*,~{\rm lim}}/(h^{-2}M_\odot)\leq10^{10.2}$, the correlation functions predicted by the widely-used $V_{\rm peak}$ model lack amplitudes at $\lesssim1~h^{-1}{\rm Mpc}$, suggesting that $M_{\rm prog}$ is a better proxy of the galaxy stellar mass than conventional $V_{\rm peak}$. The $z_{\rm prog}$ parameter is highest ($z_{\rm prog}\simeq3$) for intermediate mass galaxies at $M_*\simeq10^{9.9}~h^{-2}M_\odot$, and becomes smaller down to $z_\mathrm{prog}\simeq1$ for both lower- and higher-mass galaxies. We interpret these trends as reflecting the downsizing in the in-situ star formation in lower-mass galaxies and the larger contribution of the ex-situ stellar mass growth in higher-mass galaxies.