Large Scale Structures in the CANDELS Fields: The Role of the
  Environment in Star Formation Activity
  We present a robust method, weighted von Mises kernel density estimation,
along with boundary correction to reconstruct the underlying number density
field of galaxies. We apply this method to galaxies brighter than $\rm
HST/F160w\le 26$ AB mag at the redshift range of $0.4\leq z \leq 5$ in the five
CANDELS fields (GOODS-N, GOODS-S, EGS, UDS, and COSMOS). We then use these
measurements to explore the environmental dependence of the star formation
activity of galaxies. We find strong evidence of environmental quenching for
massive galaxies ($\rm M \gtrsim 10^{11} \rm {M}_\odot$) out to $z\sim 3.5$
such that an over-dense environment hosts $\gtrsim 20\%$ more massive quiescent
galaxies compared to an under-dense region. We also find that environmental
quenching efficiency grows with stellar mass and reaches $\sim 60\%$ for
massive galaxies at $z\sim 0.5$. The environmental quenching is also more
efficient in comparison to the stellar mass quenching for low mass galaxies
($\rm M \lesssim 10^{10} \rm {M}_\odot$) at low and intermediate redshifts
($z\lesssim 1.2$). Our findings concur thoroughly with the "over-consumption"
quenching model where the termination of cool gas accretion (cosmological
starvation) happens in an over-dense environment and the galaxy starts to
consume its remaining gas reservoir in depletion time. The depletion time
depends on the stellar mass and could explain the evolution of environmental
quenching efficiency with the stellar mass.
