Let be the linear growth factor normalized to . The present-extrapolated spherical-collapse barrier is , where is the linearly evolved overdensity required for spherical collapse at that epoch. The smoothed matter density variance is the root-mean-square linear density contrast after smoothing on a Lagrangian region containing mass ; . Thus the barrier-to-variance ratio is equivalently .
For a spherical top-hat window function with comoving radius , . A scale-free spectrum gives
Changing variable to gives the scale-free smoothed density variance scaling with . For a top-hat the scale-free integral converges for ; the inferred index below lies in this interval.
Differentiate the Press-Schechter formalism mass fraction and divide the resulting mass density by halo mass. Writing ,
This is a comoving halo abundance. Introduce by ; then and
For the constant baryon conversion mapping of halo and stellar mass, identify one counted galaxy with each halo and neglect scatter and subhalo multiplicity. If is the fraction of the halo's baryons incorporated into stars, its stellar-to-halo mass ratio is , with , and . The corresponding stellar characteristic mass is . Transforming with gives the power-law Press-Schechter stellar mass function:
It has the required power-law low-mass behavior and stretched exponential cutoff. Matching both exponents and the normalization determines the effective spectral index and stellar conversion efficiency.
The characteristic halo mass inferred from the stellar mapping is
The peak-height calibration from an exponential mass-function cutoff and give
Using , appropriate to the nearly matter-dominated collapse at this redshift,
The barrier in the original complementary-error-function expression is extrapolated to the present, but this answer is the variance at . Rewriting the ratio with and consistently cancels the growth normalization; using the present-extrapolated barrier with the redshift-three variance would double-count growth.
The baryon conversion efficiency of a halo is not observationally constant. The stellar-to-halo mass ratio rises from low-mass haloes to a broad maximum near galactic halo masses, then decreases toward groups and clusters; it also varies with redshift and has intrinsic scatter. Photoheating and stellar-feedback-driven outflows suppress baryon retention and star formation in small haloes. Long cooling times, hot atmospheres and feedback from active nuclei limit efficient conversion in massive haloes. The peak commonly occurs around halo masses of order , with its position evolving with epoch.
Therefore a mass-independent is a simplified average, not a realistic stellar-to-halo relation. Observed ratios must be compared with , not with alone. Scatter, satellite populations and the mass-dependent efficiency change the stellar mass-function shape and invalidate an exact constant-rescaling of the halo mass function.
For a power-law matter spectrum, smoothed variance scales as with . Differentiating the Press-Schechter collapsed fraction gives a halo mass function proportional to . A constant stellar-to-halo mass ratio preserves both exponents and rescales characteristic mass and normalization.
The stellar-to-halo mass ratio compares a galaxy's galactic stellar mass with its host's total halo mass. In a simple baryon-conversion model it is . Observational comparisons must distinguish this total-mass ratio from the fraction of baryons converted, and must specify whether central, satellite or all stellar populations are included.