The evolution of the [O ii], H β and [O iii] emission line luminosity functions over the last nine billions years

• Published in: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Vol. 461; no. 1; p. 1076
• Main Authors: Comparat, Johan, Zhu, Guangtun, Gonzalez-Perez, Violeta, Norberg, Peder, Newman, Jeffrey, Tresse, Laurence, Richard, Johan, Yepes, Gustavo, Kneib, Jean-Paul, Raichoor, Anand, Prada, Francisco, Maraston, Claudia, Yeche, Christophe, Delubac, Timothee, Jullo, Eric
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy P - Oxford Open Option A 01-09-2016
• Subjects: Astrophysics; Emission spectroscopy; Emitters; Galaxies; Luminosity; Mathematical models; Physics; Red shift; Statistics; Symbols
• ISSN: 0035-8711; 1365-2966
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stw1393

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, [OII](...3726,3729) (0.5 < z < 1.3), H...(...4861) (0.3 < z < 0.8) and [OIII](...5007) (0.3 < z < 0.8). Our measurements are based on 35 639 emission line galaxies and cover a volume of ~10 super( 7) Mpc super( 3). We present the first measurement of the H... 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 (...) of all LFs increase with redshift. Using the Schechter model over the redshift ranges considered, we find that, for [OII] emitters, the characteristic luminosity L*(z = 0.5) = 3.2 x 10 super( 41) erg s super( -1) increases by a factor of 2.7 plus or minus 0.2 from z = 0.5 to 1.3; for H... emitters L*(z = 0.3) = 1.3 x 10 super( 41) erg s super( -1) increases by a factor of 2.0 plus or minus 0.2 from z = 0.3 to 0.8; and for [OIII] emitters L*(z = 0.3) = 7.3 x 10 super( 41) erg s super( -1) increases by a factor of 3.5 plus or minus 0.4 from z = 0.3 to 0.8. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)