UV Luminosity Functions at z~4, 5, and 6 from the Hubble Ultra Deep Field and Other Deep Hubble Space Telescope ACS Fields: Evolution and Star Formation History

By R. Bouwens, G. Illingworth, M. Franx, H. C. Ford. 2007

511 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We use the ACS BViz data from the HUDF and all other deep HST ACS fields (including the GOODS fields) to find large samples of star-forming galaxies at z ~ 4 and ~5 and to extend our previous z ~ 6 sample. These samples contain 4671, 1416, and 627 B-, V-, and i-dropouts, respectively, and reach to extremely low luminosities [(0.01-0.04)L or MUV ~ -16 to -17], allowing us to determine the rest-frame UV LF and faint-end slope α at z ~ 4-6 to high accuracy. We find faint-end slopes α = -1.73 ± 0.05, -1.66 ± 0.09, and -1.74 ± 0.16 at z ~ 4, ~5, and ~6, respectively, suggesting that the faint-end slope is very steep and shows little evolution with cosmic time. We find that M brightens considerably in the 0.7 Gyr from z ~ 6 to ~4 (by ~0.7 mag from M = -20.24 ± 0.19 to -20.98 ± 0.10). The observed increase in the characteristic luminosity over this range is almost identical to that expected for the halo mass function, suggesting that the observed evolution is likely due to the hierarchical coalescence and merging of galaxies. The evolution in ϕ* is not significant. The UV luminosity density at z ~ 6 is modestly lower than (0.45 ± 0.09 times) that at z ~ 4 (integrated to -17.5 mag) although a larger change is seen in the dust-corrected SFR density. We thoroughly examine published LF results and assess the reasons for their wide dispersion. We argue that the results reported here are the most robust available. The extremely steep faint-end slopes α found here suggest that lower luminosity galaxies play a significant role in reionizing the universe. Finally, recent search results for galaxies at z ~ 7-8 are used to extend our estimates of the evolution of M* from z ~ 7-8 to z ~ 4.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0b868d2d87e5775e383622ba3be973f486b7a9ce

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Citations in the corpus

THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF LYMAN BREAK GALAXIES BETWEEN REDSHIFT 4 AND 6: OBSERVING SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS OF MASSIVE GALAXIES IN FORMATION (2009, methodology): “Bouwens et al. (2007) attribute this evolutionary pattern to the simple hierarchical assembly of galaxies.”
THE HST EXTREME DEEP FIELD (XDF): COMBINING ALL ACS AND WFC3/IR DATA ON THE HUDF REGION INTO THE DEEPEST FIELD EVER (2013, background): “The HUDF, along with the companion wide-field GOODS images (Giavalisco et al. 2004), revealed large numbers of z ∼ 6 galaxies (Bouwens et al. 2006; Bouwens et al. 2007) at the end of the reionization epoch for the first time.”
The physics driving the cosmic star formation history (2009, background): “…rate (SFR) density as a function of redshift has therefore long been one of the primary goals of observational astronomy (e.g. Lilly et al. 1996; Madau et al. 1996; Steidel et al. 1999; Ouchi et al. 2004; Arnouts et al. 2005; Schiminovich et al. 2005; Hopkins & Beacom 2006; Bouwens et al. 2007).”
NEW CONSTRAINTS ON COSMIC REIONIZATION FROM THE 2012 HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD CAMPAIGN (2013, methodology): “…of the UV luminosity densityρUV for limiting magnitudes of MUV = −17 (red lines),MUV = −13 (orange lines), andMUV = −10 (blue lines) for our Schechter function fits to thez ∼ 5 − 6 LFs of Bouwens et al. (2007), thez ∼ 7 − 8 LFs of Schenker et al. (2012a), and thez ∼ 7−8 LFs of McLure et al. (2012).”
A STEEP FAINT-END SLOPE OF THE UV LUMINOSITY FUNCTION AT z ∼ 2–3: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE GLOBAL STELLAR MASS DENSITY AND STAR FORMATION IN LOW-MASS HALOS (2008, methodology): “…luminosity will add roughly 10% to the luminosity density. increase in the star formation rate density between z ∼ 6 and z ∼ 2 (e.g., see also R08, Bouwens et al. 2007), significantly steeper than the factor of 4 that we would have inferred in the case of a luminosity-invariant (constant)…”
EVOLUTION OF GALAXY STELLAR MASS FUNCTIONS, MASS DENSITIES, AND MASS-TO-LIGHT RATIOS FROM z ∼ 7 TO z ∼ 4 (2010, methodology): “The z ∼ 4, 5, 6 sample totals 679 objects, consisting of 524B, 123V, and 32 i-dropouts that were selected with the same criteria as Bouwens et al. (2007): z ∼ 4 B-dropouts: (B435 −V606 > 1.1) ∧ [B435 −V606 > (V606 − z850)+ 1.1] ∧ (V606 − z850 < 1.6) z ∼ 5 V -dropouts: {[V606 − i775 > 0.9(i775 −…”
The Frontier Fields: Survey Design and Initial Results (2016, background): “…resulting “wedding cake” survey of the combined GOODS and HUDF observations proved to be an important strategy for spanning the depth and area needed to constrain both the bright and faint ends of the luminosity function of galaxies approaching the epoch of reionization (e.g. Bouwens et al.2007).”
UV CONTINUUM SLOPE AND DUST OBSCURATION FROM z ∼ 6 TO z ∼ 2: THE STAR FORMATION RATE DENSITY AT HIGH REDSHIFT (2009, methodology): “We use the wide-area ACS Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS) fields (Giavalisco et al. 2004a) to quantify these slopes at bright magnitudes and extend our analyses to very low luminosities by examining very deep HST data sets like the HUDF, and also by examining dropouts behind massive g”
Inflation and the scale dependent spectral index: prospects and strategies (2010, background): “02 h 3 Mpc−3 at z = 5 [64], obtained from integrating the fitted luminosity function of drop outs down to the observational magnitude limit of M = −16.”
A CENSUS OF STAR-FORMING GALAXIES IN THE Z ∼ 9–10 UNIVERSE BASED ON HST+SPITZER OBSERVATIONS OVER 19 CLASH CLUSTERS: THREE CANDIDATE Z ∼ 9–10 GALAXIES AND IMPROVED CONSTRAINTS ON THE STAR FORMATION RATE DENSITY AT Z ∼ 9.2 (2012, methodology): “In analogy with lower-redshift Lyman-break selections (e.g., Giavalisco et al. 2004; Bouwens et al. 2007; Bouwens et al. 2011b), we devised the following two-color z ∼ 9-10 selection for the CLASH cluster fields: ((J110 + J125)/2−H160 > 0.7) ∧ (JH140 −H160 < 0.5) where ∧ represents the logical AND…”
COMPLETING THE CENSUS OF Lyα EMITTERS AT THE REIONIZATION EPOCH (2011, methodology): “The green-shaded region is the range of the UV LF of LBGs sampled at z ∼ 6 determined by various studies, based on Bouwens et al. (2007), Figure 11.”
UVUDF: ULTRAVIOLET THROUGH NEAR-INFRARED CATALOG AND PHOTOMETRIC REDSHIFTS OF GALAXIES IN THE HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD (2015, background): “…et al. 2013; McLure et al. 2013; Oesch et al. 2013; Bouwens et al. 2014), to observe the evolution in the star formation rate density (e.g., Bouwens et al. 2007, 2009, 2010), to determine the morphological properties of galaxies (e.g., Bouwens et al. 2004; Elmegreen et al. 2005c; Straughn…”
DISCOVERY OF z ∼ 8 GALAXIES IN THE HUBBLE ULTRA DEEP FIELD FROM ULTRA-DEEP WFC3/IR OBSERVATIONS (2009, methodology): “Also included is our UV LF determination at z ∼ 7 from a zdropout search over the same ultra-deep WFC3/IR field (magenta lines and points: Oesch et al. 2010a) and also the Bouwens et al. (2007) UV LF determinations at z ∼4,5 and 6 (shown in blue, green, and cyan lines and points).”
The n ature of submillimetre galaxies in cosmological hydrodynamic simulations (2009, background): “It also suppresses star formation in agreement with high-redshift luminosity functions (Davé, Finlator & Oppenheimer 2006; Marchesini et al. 2007) and the cosmic evolution of UV luminosity at z ∼ 4 − 7 (Bouwens et al. 2007).”
UV-CONTINUUM SLOPES AT z ∼ 4–7 FROM THE HUDF09+ERS+CANDELS OBSERVATIONS: DISCOVERY OF A WELL-DEFINED UV COLOR–MAGNITUDE RELATIONSHIP FOR z ⩾ 4 STAR-FORMING GALAXIES (2011, methodology): “We will make use of the z ∼ 4, z ∼ 5, z ∼ 6, and z ∼ 7 LFs of Bouwens et al. (2007) and Bouwens et al. (2011b).”
HUBBLE FRONTIER FIELDS FIRST COMPLETE CLUSTER DATA: FAINT GALAXIES AT z ∼ 5–10 FOR UV LUMINOSITY FUNCTIONS AND COSMIC REIONIZATION (2014, methodology): “We use the best-fit Schechter functions shown in Section 5 and those in the literature for z ∼ 4 − 6 (Bouwens et al. 2007), z ∼ 7 − 8 (Schenker et al. 2013; McLure et al. 2013), z ∼ 9.2 (Bouwens et al. 2012), and z ∼ 10.4 (Bouwens et al. 2014).”
THE EVOLUTION OF THE GALAXY STELLAR MASS FUNCTION AT z = 4–8: A STEEPENING LOW-MASS-END SLOPE WITH INCREASING REDSHIFT (2015, background): “Those of González et al. (2011) include the uncertainties of the UV luminosity function of Bouwens et al. (2007, 2011) and the scatter of the M∗–MUV relation.”