A New Census of the 0.2 < z < 3.0 Universe, Part I: The Stellar Mass Function

There has been a long-standing factor-of-two tension between the observed star formation rate density and the observed stellar mass buildup after $z\sim2$. Recently we have proposed that sophisticated panchromatic SED models can resolve this tension, as these methods infer systematically higher masses and lower star formation rates than standard approaches. In a series of papers we now extend this analysis and present a complete, self-consistent census of galaxy formation over 0.2 < z < 3 inferred with the Prospector galaxy SED-fitting code. In this work, Paper I, we present the evolution of the galaxy stellar mass function using new mass measurements of ~10^5 galaxies in the 3D-HST and COSMOS-2015 surveys. We employ a new methodology to infer the mass function from the observed stellar masses: instead of fitting independent mass functions in a series of fixed redshift intervals, we construct a continuity model that directly fits for the redshift evolution of the mass function. This approach ensures a smooth picture of galaxy assembly and makes use of the full, non-Gaussian uncertainty contours in our stellar mass inferences. The resulting mass function has higher number densities at a fixed stellar mass than almost any other measurement in the literature, largely owing to the older stellar ages inferred by Prospector. The stellar mass density is ~50% higher than previous measurements, with the offset peaking at z~1. This talk describes a paper submitted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.