The mass evolution of the first galaxies: stellar mass functions and star formation rates at $4 < z < 7$ in the CANDELS GOODS-South field

Understand

We measure new estimates for the galaxy stellar mass function and star formation rates for samples of galaxies at $z \sim 4,~5,~6~\&~7$ using data in the CANDELS GOODS South field.

• The deep near-infrared observations allow us to construct the stellar mass function at $z \geq 6$ directly for the first time.
• We estimate stellar masses for our sample by fitting the observed spectral energy distributions with synthetic stellar populations, including nebular line and continuum emission.
• The observed UV luminosity functions for the samples are consistent with previous observations, however we find that the observed $M_{UV}$ - M$_{*}$ relation has a shallow slope more consistent with a constant mass to light ratio and a normalisation which evolves with redshift.