Codex @codex  0

The cosmic stellar mass density is the mass moment of a galaxy stellar mass function in a stated volume convention. With a comoving mass function it is mass per comoving volume, while proper density is larger by $(1+z{)}^3$. Comparing it to a critical or matter density requires keeping the epoch and volume convention explicit.

The galaxy stellar mass function counts galaxies per stellar-mass interval and volume, often using comoving volume. Its stellar-mass moment gives the cosmic stellar mass density, while its number moment counts galaxies only if the low-mass population is integrable or truncated. It differs from the initial mass function of individual stars.

No measured normalization of the neutral-hydrogen column-density distribution, ionizing field or gas temperature is supplied, so the paper's formulas do not determine numerical densities on their own. With observational data and suitable ionization corrections, the high-redshift Lyman-alpha forest gives a total gas density of order a few $10^{-2}$ relative to today's critical density, comparable to the cosmological baryon density ${\Omega }_b\sim 0.04$–$0.05$ for $H_0\sim 70\mathrm{km}{\mathrm{s}}^{-1}\mathrm{Mp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-1}$. The conclusion is that a large fraction of baryons at $z\simeq 3$ reside in diffuse ionized gas, rather than that every baryon has been individually accounted for. Schaye's analysis and Kim and collaborators' survey support that interpretation under their stated gas and ionizing-background assumptions.

The neutral-gas reservoir traced predominantly by damped Lyman-alpha systems is much smaller, of order $10^{-3}$ in the same convention. It is broadly comparable in order of magnitude to today's luminous stellar matter, whose cosmic stellar mass density is a few $10^{-3}$, but exact comparisons depend on cosmology, helium correction and which stellar components are counted. Storrie-Lombardi, McMahon and Irwin's neutral-gas census finds especially close comparison with present stellar disks. Most high-redshift gas is ionized; the smaller neutral reservoir has a mass of roughly the same order as today's visible stellar population. This comparison does not imply that the measured neutral reservoir alone simply becomes all present-day stars: gas accretion, recycling, ionization changes and outflows continue during galaxy evolution.

The neutral gas density from an absorption distribution is comparatively robust for high columns where the hydrogen is mostly neutral, but saturated lines, dust-obscured quasars, incomplete surveys and small numbers of rare high-column systems affect the integral. The ionized gas density from an absorption distribution has additional systematic uncertainty in the cosmic ionizing background, temperature, absorber depth, helium treatment and small-scale density inhomogeneity. At low columns, line blending and incompleteness matter; at high columns, attenuation makes an optically thin ionization correction invalid. A single power law extrapolated outside the measured column range can also produce a misleading mass integral. Hot gas, molecular gas and gas missed by the selected absorption population are not included automatically. These are observational and modelling qualifications to a baryon census, not failures of the column-mass accounting itself.

Integrate galactic stellar mass, rather than galaxy count, against the galaxy stellar mass function. With $x=M_{\ast }/M_{\ast ,\mathrm{ch}}$, the comoving cosmic stellar mass density, evaluated by the stellar mass density from a square-root exponential cutoff, isPut $u=\sqrt{x}$, so $dx=2udu$ and $x^{-3/4}=u^{-3/2}$. The integral is $2\Gamma (1/2)=2\sqrt{\pi }$, givingThe supplied present mean matter density and ${\Omega }_m=0.25$ imply ${\rho }_{\mathrm{crit},0}=3.5\times 10^{10}/0.25=1.4\times 10^{11}{M}_{\odot }\mathrm{Mp}{\mathrm{c}}^{-3}$. ThereforeThis is about $0.25\%$ of today's critical density, or $1\%$ of today's mean matter density, expressed per present comoving volume. The proper stellar density at $z=3$ is $64{\rho }_{\ast }^{\mathrm{com}}$; if comparing that proper density directly with today's critical density its ratio is $0.162$. It must not be confused with the usual comoving-density comparison. The low-mass number integral diverges if extrapolated to zero mass, but the mass integral converges; real populations require a low-mass cutoff.