Gas inflow and Cosmic Star formation Efficiency Beyond z=3
Fuyan Bian (Australian National University)
We present a large sample of z~3 Lyman break galaxies (LBGs) selected in the NOAO deep and wide field surveys. We estimate the average host halo mass for two samples of bright LBGs by studying their spatial correlation function. Combining it with other measurements at higher redshifts and lower luminosities, we find a tight relation between the host halo mass and the galaxy star formation rate, which follows the trend predicted by the baryonic accretion rate onto the halo, suggesting that the star formation in LBGs is fueled by baryonic accretion through the cosmic web. By comparing the SFRs with the total baryonic accretion rates, we find that cosmic star formation efficiency is about 5%-20% and it does not evolve significantly with redshift, halo mass, or galaxy luminosity.