The rest-frame optical luminosity density, color, and stellar mass density of the universe from z = 0 to z = 3

We present the evolution of the rest-frame optical luminosity density j_λ^.rest, the integrated rest-frame optical color, and the stellar mass density, ρ*, for a sample of K_s band-selected galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field-South (HDF-S). We derived j _λ^.rest in the rest-frame U, B, and V bands and found that j_λ^.rest increases by a factor of 1.9 ± 0.4, 2.9 ± 0.6, and 4.9 ± 1.0 in the V, B, and U rest-frame bands, respectively, between redshifts of 0.1 and 3.2. We derived the luminosity-weighted mean cosmic (U-B)_rest and (B- V) _rest colors as a function of redshift. The colors bluen almost monotonically with increasing redshift; at z = 0.1, the (U-B)_rest and (B- V)rest colors are 0.16 and 0.75, respectively, while at z = 2.8 they are -0.39 and 0.29, respectively. We derived the luminosity-weighted mean M / L_V^z.ast;, using the correlation between (U- V) ^rest and log M / L_V^z.ast; that exists for a range in smooth star formation histories (SFHs) and moderate extinctions. We have shown that the mean of individual M/L_V^z.ast; estimates can overpredict the true value by ∼70%, while our method over-predicts the true value by only ∼35%. We find that the universe at z ∼ 3 had ∼10 times lower stellar mass density than it does today in galaxies with L_V^rest > 1.4 × 10¹⁰ h₇₀^-2 L⊙. Half of the stellar mass of the universe was formed by z ∼ 1-1.5. The rate of increase in ρ* with decreasing redshift is similar to but above that for independent estimates from the HDF-N, but it is slightly less than that predicted by the integral of the SFR(z) curve.