Publication Date:
2015-08-12
Description:
We investigate the evolution of the H β + [O iii ] and [O ii ] luminosity functions from z ~ 0.8 to ~5 in four redshift slices per emission line using data from the High- z Emission Line Survey (HiZELS). This is the first time that the H β + [O iii ] and [O ii ] luminosity functions have been studied at these redshifts in a self-consistent analysis. This is also the largest sample of [O ii ] and H β + [O iii ] emitters (3475 and 3298 emitters, respectively) in this redshift range, with large comoving volumes ~1 x 10 6 Mpc –3 in two independent volumes (COSMOS and UDS), greatly reducing the effects of cosmic variance. The emitters were selected by a combination of photometric redshift and colour–colour selections, as well as spectroscopic follow-up, including recent spectroscopic observations using DEIMOS and MOSFIRE on the Keck Telescopes and FMOS on Subaru. We find a strong increase in L * and a decrease in * for both H β + [O iii ] and [O ii ] emitters. We derive the [O ii ] star formation history of the Universe since z ~ 5 and find that the cosmic star formation rate density (SFRD) rises from z ~ 5 to ~3 and then drops towards z ~ 0. We also find that our star formation history is able to reproduce the evolution of the stellar mass density up to z ~ 5 based only on a single tracer of star formation. When comparing the H β + [O iii ] SFRDs to the [O ii ] and H α SFRD measurements in the literature, we find that there is a remarkable agreement, suggesting that the H β + [O iii ] sample is dominated by star-forming galaxies at high- z rather than AGNs.
Print ISSN:
0035-8711
Electronic ISSN:
1365-2966
Topics:
Physics
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