Near‐Infrared Faint Galaxies in the Subaru Deep Field: Comparing the Theory with Observations for Galaxy Counts, Colors, and Size Distributions toK∼ 24.5

Galaxy counts in the K band, (J-K)-colors, and apparent size distributions offaint galaxies in the Subaru Deep Field (SDF) down to K~24.5 were studied indetail. Special attention has been paid to take into account various selectioneffects including the cosmological dimming of surface brightness, to avoid anysystematic bias which may be the origin of controversy in previously publishedresults. We also tried to be very careful about systematic model uncertainties;we present a comprehensive surveys of these systematic uncertainties anddependence on various parameters. We found that the pure luminosity evolution(PLE) model is well consistent with all the SDF data down to K~22.5, withoutany evidence for number or size evolution in a low-density, Lambda-dominatedflat universe which is now favored by various cosmological observations. If thepopular Lambda-dominated universe is taken for granted, our result then gives astrong constraint on the number evolution of giant elliptical or early-typegalaxies to z~1-2 which must be met by any models in the hierarchicallyclustering universe, since such galaxies are the dominant population in thismagnitude range (K<~22.5). In the fainter magnitude range of K>~22.5, we founda slight excess of observed counts over the prediction of the PLE model whenelliptical galaxies are treated as a single population. We suggest that thisdiscrepancy reflects some number evolution of dwarf galaxies and/or thedistinct populations of giant and dwarf elliptical galaxies which have beenknown for local elliptical galaxies.Comment: References updated. Accepted by Ap