Constraints on the Evolution of the Galaxy Stellar Mass Function I: Role of Star Formation, Mergers and Stellar Stripping

We study the connection between the observed star formation rate-stellar mass (SFR-M) relation and the evolution of the stellar mass function (SMF) by means of a Subhalo Abundance Matching technique coupled to merger trees extracted from a N-body simulation. Our approach, which considers both galaxy mergers and stellar stripping, is to force the model to match the observed SMF at redshift z>2, and let it evolve down to the present time according to the observed (SFR-M) relation. In this study, we use two different sets of SMFs and two SFR-M relations: a simple power law and a relation with a mass-dependent slope. Our analysis shows that the evolution of the SMF is more consistent with a SFR-M relation with