Determining the Properties and Evolution of Red Galaxies from the Quasar Luminosity Function

(Abridged) We study the link between quasars and the red galaxy populationusing a model for the self-regulated growth of supermassive black holes inmergers involving gas-rich galaxies. Using a model for quasar lifetimes andevolution motivated by hydrodynamical simulations of galaxy mergers, wede-convolve the observed quasar luminosity function at various redshifts todetermine the rate of formation of black holes of a given final mass.Identifying quasar activity with the formation of spheroids in the framework ofthe merger hypothesis, this enables us to deduce the corresponding rate offormation of spheroids with given properties as a function of redshift. Thisallows us to predict, for the red galaxy population, the distribution of galaxyvelocity dispersions, the mass function, mass density, star formation rates,the luminosity function in many observed wavebands (NUV, U, B, V, R, I, J, H,K), the total red galaxy number density and luminosity density, thedistribution of colors as a function of magnitude and velocity dispersion forseveral different wavebands, the distribution of mass to light ratios vs. mass,the luminosity-size relations, and the typical ages and distribution of ages(formation redshifts) as a function of both mass and luminosity. For each ofthese quantities, we predict the evolution from redshift z=0-6. Each of ourpredictions agrees well with existing observations, without the addition oftunable parameters; the essential observational inputs come from the observedquasar luminosity function. These predictions are skewed by several orders ofmagnitude if we adopt simpler, traditional models of quasar lifetimes in whichquasars turn on/off or follow simple exponential light curves, instead of themore complicated evolution implied by our simulations.Comment: 28 pages, 22 figures, matches version accepted to Ap