Observations of large samples of galaxies from low to high redshifts are composing a picture of remarkable simplicity: (1) The star formation rate (SFR) of starforming galaxies scales almost linearly with mass, strongly decline with cosmic time, and exhibits very small scatter around the average relation. (2) Due to the high observed SFRs the mass of galaxies at high redshifts must increase very rapidly, and yet the mass function of star forming galaxies evolves only very slightly with redshift. (3) At all redshifts the fraction of quenched (passively evolving) galaxies increases with galactic stellar mass and with local overdensity, with the remarkable property that the relative efficiency of "mass quenching" is independent of environment, and that of "environment quenching" is independent of mass. In a recent paper by the zCOSMOS collaboration, Peng et al. (2010) demonstrate that these three empirical facts suffice to account for the observed evolution of the galaxy mass function and naturally generate the "double-Schechter" mass function for quenched galaxies.

ABSTRACT
1. INTRODUCTION
2. LATEST RESULTS
3. CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

• ALVIO RENZINI(INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova)