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Description
Recent observations have shown that the characteristic luminosity of the rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function does not significantly evolve at 4<z<7 and is approximately M_UV_^*^~21. We investigate this apparent non-evolution by examining a sample of 173 bright, M_UV_<-21 galaxies at z=4-7, analyzing their stellar populations and host halo masses. Including deep Spitzer/IRAC imaging to constrain the rest-frame optical light, we find that M_UV_^*^ galaxies at z=4-7 have similar stellar masses of log(M/M_{sun}_)=9.6-9.9 and are thus relatively massive for these high redshifts. However, bright galaxies at z=4-7 are less massive and have younger inferred ages than similarly bright galaxies at z=2-3, even though the two populations have similar star formation rates and levels of dust attenuation for a fixed dust-attenuation curve. Matching the abundances of these bright z=4-7 galaxies to halo mass functions from the Bolshoi {Lambda}CDM simulation implies that the typical halo masses in ~M_UV_^*^ galaxies decrease from log(M_h_/M_{sun}_)=11.9 at z=4 to log(M_h_/M_{sun}_)=11.4 at z=7. Thus, although we are studying galaxies at a similar stellar mass across multiple redshifts, these galaxies live in lower mass halos at higher redshift. The stellar baryon fraction in ~M_UV_^*^ galaxies in units of the cosmic mean {Omega}_b_/{Omega}_m_ rises from 5.1% at z=4 to 11.7% at z=7; this evolution is significant at the ~3{sigma} level. This rise does not agree with simple expectations of how galaxies grow, and implies that some effect, perhaps a diminishing efficiency of feedback, is allowing a higher fraction of available baryons to be converted into stars at high redshifts.
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