The evolution of the [OII], H{\beta} and [OIII] emission-line luminosity functions over the last nine billions years
May 10, 201612 pages
Published in:
- Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 461 (2016) 1, 1076-1087
- Published: Sep 1, 2016
e-Print:
- 1605.02875 [astro-ph.GA]
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Abstract: (Oxford University Press)
Emission line galaxies are one of the main tracers of the large-scale structure to be targeted by the next-generation dark energy surveys. To provide a better understanding of the properties and statistics of these galaxies, we have collected spectroscopic data from the VVDS and DEEP2 deep surveys and estimated the galaxy luminosity functions (LFs) of three distinct emission lines, (0.5 < z < 1.3), Hβ (λ4861) (0.3 < z < 0.8) and (0.3 < z < 0.8). Our measurements are based on 35 639 emission line galaxies and cover a volume of ∼10^7 Mpc^3. We present the first measurement of the Hβ LF at these redshifts. We have also compiled LFs from the literature that were based on independent data or covered different redshift ranges, and we fit the entire set over the whole redshift range with analytic Schechter and Saunders models, assuming a natural redshift dependence of the parameters. We find that the characteristic luminosity (L_*) and density (ϕ_*) of all LFs increase with redshift. Using the Schechter model over the redshift ranges considered, we find that, for emitters, the characteristic luminosity L_*(z = 0.5) = 3.2 × 10^41 erg s^−1 increases by a factor of 2.7 ± 0.2 from z = 0.5 to 1.3; for Hβ emitters L_*(z = 0.3) = 1.3 × 10^41 erg s^−1 increases by a factor of 2.0 ± 0.2 from z = 0.3 to 0.8; and for emitters L_*(z = 0.3) = 7.3 × 10^41 erg s^−1 increases by a factor of 3.5 ± 0.4 from z = 0.3 to 0.8.Note:
- 11 pages. Accepted in MNRAS. Data available at http://projects.ift.uam-csic.es/skies-universes/ via the page emission line luminosity functions
- catalogues
- surveys
- galaxies: abundances
- galaxies: evolution
- galaxies: general
- cosmology: observations
References(56)
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