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Evolution of the H β + [O III] and [O II] luminosity functions and the [O II] star formation history of the Universe up to z ∼ 5 from HiZELS

Khostovan, A.A.; Sobral, D.; Mobasher, B.; Best, P.N.; Smail, I.; Stott, J.P.; Hemmati, S.; Nayyeri, H.

Evolution of the H β + [O III] and [O II] luminosity functions and the [O II] star formation history of the Universe up to z ∼ 5 from HiZELS Thumbnail


Authors

A.A. Khostovan

D. Sobral

B. Mobasher

P.N. Best

Profile image of Ian Smail

Ian Smail ian.smail@durham.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor

J.P. Stott

S. Hemmati

H. Nayyeri



Abstract

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 × 106 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 ϕ⋆ 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.

Citation

Khostovan, A., Sobral, D., Mobasher, B., Best, P., Smail, I., Stott, J., …Nayyeri, H. (2015). Evolution of the H β + [O III] and [O II] luminosity functions and the [O II] star formation history of the Universe up to z ∼ 5 from HiZELS. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 452(4), 3948-3968. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1474

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 1, 2015
Publication Date Oct 1, 2015
Deposit Date Feb 16, 2016
Publicly Available Date Feb 19, 2016
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN 0035-8711
Electronic ISSN 1365-2966
Publisher Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 452
Issue 4
Pages 3948-3968
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stv1474
Keywords Galaxies: evolution, Galaxies: high-redshift, Galaxies: luminosity function, mass function, Cosmology: observations
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1419495
Related Public URLs http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015MNRAS.452.3948K

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Copyright Statement
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2015 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.






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