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Hans Publishers, Astronomy & Astrophysics, (643), p. L11, 2020

DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202038675

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The molecular mass function of the local Universe

Journal article published in 2020 by P. Andreani ORCID, Y. Miyamoto ORCID, H. Kaneko, A. Boselli ORCID, K. Tatematsu, K. Sorai, R. Vio
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Preprint: archiving forbidden
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Postprint: archiving forbidden
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Published version: archiving forbidden
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Aims. We construct the molecular mass function using the bivariate K-band-mass function (BMF) of the Herschel Reference Survey (HRS), which is a volume-limited sample that has already been widely studied at the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Methods. The molecular mass function was derived from the K-band and the gas mass cumulative distribution using a copula method, which is described in detail in our previous papers. Results. The H2 mass is relatively strongly correlated with the K-band luminosity because of the tight relation between the stellar mass and the molecular gas mass within the sample with a scatter, which is likely due to those galaxies which have lost their molecular content because of environmental effects or because of a larger gas consumption due to past star formation processes. The derived H2 MF samples the molecular mass range from ∼4 × 106 M to ∼1010 M, and when compared with theoretical models, it agrees well with the theoretical predictions at the lower end of the mass values; whereas at masses larger than 1010 M, the HRS sample may miss galaxies with a large content of molecular hydrogen and the outcomes are not conclusive. The value of the local density of the molecular gas mass inferred from our analysis is ∼1.5 × 107 M Mpc−3, and it is compared with the results at larger redshifts, confirming the lack of strong evolution for the molecular mass density between z = 0 and z = 4. Conclusions. This is the first molecular mass function that has been derived on a complete sample in the local Universe, which can be used as a reliable calibration at redshift z = 0 for models aiming to predict the evolution of the molecular mass density.