SEMI-ANALYTIC MODELS FOR THE CANDELS SURVEY: COMPARISON OF PREDICTIONS FOR INTRINSIC GALAXY PROPERTIES

We compare the predictions of three independently developed semi-analytic galaxy formation models (SAMs) that are being used to aid in the interpretation of results from the CANDELS survey. These models are each applied to the same set of halo merger trees extracted from the "Bolshoi" high-resolution cosmological N-body simulation and are carefully tuned to match the local galaxy stellar mass function using the powerful method of Bayesian Inference coupled with Markov Chain Monte Carlo or by hand. The comparisons reveal that in spite of the significantly different parameterizations for star formation and feedback processes, the three models yield qualitatively similar predictions for the assembly histories of galaxy stellar mass and star formation over cosmic time. The three sets of models are being used to construct catalogs of mock galaxies on light cones that have the same geometry as the CANDELS survey, which should be particularly useful for quantifying the biases and uncertainties on measurements and inferences from the real observations.