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Title:
Multiwavelength Constraints on the Cosmic Star Formation History from Spectroscopy: the Rest-Frame Ultraviolet, Hα, and Infrared Luminosity Functions at Redshifts 1.9 <~ z <~ 3.4
Authors:
Reddy, Naveen A.; Steidel, Charles C.; Pettini, Max; Adelberger, Kurt L.; Shapley, Alice E.; Erb, Dawn K.; Dickinson, Mark
Affiliation:
AA(California Institute of Technology, MS 105-24, Pasadena, CA 91125.; National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719.), AB(California Institute of Technology, MS 105-24, Pasadena, CA 91125.), AC(Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 OHA, UK.), AD(McKinsey & Company, 1420 Fifth Avenue, Suite 3100, Seattle, WA 98101.), AE(Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Peyton Hall, Ivy Lane, Princeton, NJ 08544.), AF(Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.), AG(National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85719.)
Publication:
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, Volume 175, Issue 1, pp. 48-85. (ApJS Homepage)
Publication Date:
03/2008
Origin:
UCP
ApJ Keywords:
Galaxies: Evolution, Galaxies: Formation, Galaxies: High-Redshift, Galaxies: Luminosity Function, Mass Function, Galaxies: Starburst, Infrared: Galaxies
DOI:
10.1086/521105
Bibliographic Code:
2008ApJS..175...48R

Abstract

We use a sample of rest-frame UV-selected and spectroscopically observed galaxies at redshifts 1.9<=z<3.4, combined with ground-based spectroscopic Hα and Spitzer MIPS 24 μm data, to derive the most robust measurements of the rest-frame UV, Hα, and infrared (IR) luminosity functions (LFs) at these redshifts. Our sample is by far the largest of its kind, with over 2000 spectroscopic redshifts in the range 1.9<=z<3.4 and ~15,000 photometric candidates in 29 independent fields covering a total area of almost a square degree. Our method for computing the LFs takes into account a number of systematic effects, including photometric scatter, Lyα line perturbations to the observed optical colors of galaxies, and contaminants. Taking into account the latter, we find no evidence for an excess of UV-bright galaxies over what was inferred in early z~3 LBG studies. The UV LF appears to undergo little evolution between z~4 and z~2. Corrected for extinction, the UV luminosity density (LD) at z~2 is at least as large as the value at z~3 and a factor of ~9 larger than the value at z~6, primarily reflecting an increase in the number density of bright galaxies between z~6 and z~2. Our analysis yields the first constraints anchored by extensive spectroscopy on the infrared and bolometric LFs for faint and moderately luminous (Lbol<~1012 Lsolar) galaxies. Adding the IR to the emergent UV luminosity, incorporating independent measurements of the LD from ULIRGs, and assuming realistic dust attenuation values for UV-faint galaxies, indicates that galaxies with Lbol<1012 Lsolar account for ~80% of the bolometric LD and SFRD at z~2-3. This suggests that previous estimates of the faint end of the Lbol LF may have underestimated the steepness of the faint-end slope at Lbol<1012 Lsolar. Our multiwavelength constraints on the global SFRD indicate that approximately one-third of the present-day stellar mass density was formed in subultraluminous galaxies between redshifts z=1.9-3.4.

Based, in part, on data obtained at the W. M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and NASA, and was made possible by the generous financial support of the W. M. Keck Foundation. Also based in part on observations made with the Spitzer Space Telescope, which is operated by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA.

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