Measuring the average evolution of luminous galaxies at z < 3:: The rest-frame optical luminosity density, spectral energy distribution, and stellar mass density

We present the evolution of the volume-averaged properties of the rest-frame optically luminous (L-V > 3 x 10(10) h(70)(-2) L-circle dot) galaxy population to z similar to 3, determined from four disjoint deep fields. We characterize their rest-frame UV through optical properties via the mean SED. To measure evolution, we apply the selection criteria to a sample of galaxies from the SDSS and COMBO-17 survey. The mean rest-frame 2200 angstrom through V-band SED becomes steadily bluer with increasing redshift, but at all redshifts z < 3 the mean SED falls within the range defined by "normal'' galaxies in the nearby universe. We measure the mean stellar mass-to-light ratios (M/L) and stellar mass densities (p) by fittingmodels to themean rest-frame UV-optical SEDs. The p in galaxies selected at a fixed luminosity has increased by a factor of 3.5-7.9 from z = 3 to 0.1. If we instead use our observed M/L-V evolution to select galaxies at a fixed mass, p evolves by a factor of 5.3-16.7. After correcting to total, the measured p at z < 2 lie below the integral of the star formation rate density as a function of redshift as derived from UV-selected samples after a standard correction for extinction. We find large discrepancies between recent model predictions for the evolution of rho(*) and our results, even when our observational selection is applied to the models. Finally, we determine that distant red galaxies (selected to have J(s) - K-s > 2.3) in our L-V(rest)-selected samples contribute 30% and 64% of the stellar mass budget at z similar to 2 and z similar to 2.8, respectively. These galaxies are largely absent from UV surveys, and this result highlights the need for mass selection of high-redshift galaxies.