Faint Blue Galaxies and the Epoch of Dwarf Galaxy Formation

Several independent lines of reasoning, both theoretical and observational, suggest that the very faint (B ≳ 24) galaxies seen in deep images of the sky are small low-mass galaxies that experienced a short starburst at redshifts 0.5 ≲ z ≲ 1 and have since faded into low-luminosity, low surface brightness (LSB) objects. We examine this hypothesis in detail in order to determine whether a model incorporating such dwarfs can account for the observed wavelength-dependent number counts, as well as redshift, color, and size distributions. Low-mass galaxies generically arise in large numbers in hierarchical clustering scenarios with realistic initial conditions. Generally, these galaxies are expected to form at high redshifts. Babul & Rees have argued that the formation epoch of these galaxies is, in fact, delayed until z ≲ 1 due to the photoionization of the gas by the metagalactic UV radiation at high redshifts. We combine these two elements, along with simple heuristic assumptions regarding star formation histories and efficiency, to construct our bursting dwarf model. The slope and the normalization of the mass function of the dwarf galaxies are derived from the initial conditions and are not adjusted to fit the data. We further augment the model with a phenomenological prescription for the formation and evolution of the locally observed population of galaxies (E, S0, Sab, Sbc, and Sdm types). We use spectral synthesis and Monte Carlo methods to generate realistic model galaxy catalogs for comparison with observations. We find that for reasonable choices of the star formation histories for the dwarf galaxies, the model results are in very good agreement with the results of the deep galaxy surveys. Such a dwarf-dominated model is also qualitatively supported by recent studies of faint galaxy gravitational lensing and clustering, by galaxy size distributions measured with the Hubble Space Telescope, and by the evidence for very modest evolution in regular galaxy properties out to z = 1. We also discuss various tests of the model based on some generic predictions. For example, the model predicts that the number counts in the K band ought to begin rising more steeply at magnitudes fainter than KAB ≈ 24-25. The model also predicts that the local field luminosity function (LF) ought to exhibit a steep upturn at magnitudes fainter than MB ≈ -16. The detection of the latter, however, depends sensitively on the selection criteria used to construct a galaxy catalog. We also consider the possibility of detecting the LSB remnants at low redshifts.