New Determinations of the UV Luminosity Functions from z ∼ 9 to 2 Show a Remarkable Consistency with Halo Growth and a Constant Star Formation Efficiency

By R. Bouwens, P. Oesch, M. Stefanon, G. Illingworth, I. Labbé, N. Reddy, H. Atek, M. Montes, R. Naidu, T. Nanayakkara and 2 more. Astronomical Journal, 2021

221 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Here we provide the most comprehensive determinations of the rest-frame UV luminosity function (LF) available to date with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) at z ∼ 2–9. Essentially all of the noncluster extragalactic legacy fields are utilized, including the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the Hubble Frontier Fields parallel fields, and all five CANDELS fields, for a total survey area of 1136 arcmin2. Our determinations include galaxies at z ∼ 2–3 leveraging the deep HDUV, UVUDF, and ERS WFC3/UVIS observations available over an ∼150 arcmin2 area in the GOODS-North and GOODS-South regions. All together, our collective samples include >24,000 sources, >2.3× larger than previous selections with HST. We identify 5766, 6332, 7240, 3449, 1066, 601, 246, and 33 sources at z ∼ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, respectively. Combining our results with an earlier z ∼ 10 LF determination by Oesch et al., we quantify the evolution of the UV LF. Our results indicate that there is (1) a smooth flattening of the faint-end slope α from α ∼ −2.4 at z ∼ 10 to α ∼ −1.5 at z ∼ 2, (2) minimal evolution in the characteristic luminosity M* at z ≥ 2.5, and (3) a monotonic increase in the normalization log10ϕ* from z ∼ 10 to 2, which can be well described by a simple second-order polynomial, consistent with an “accelerated” evolution scenario. We find that each of these trends (from z ∼ 10 to 2.5 at least) can be readily explained on the basis of the evolution of the halo mass function and a simple constant star formation efficiency model.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3b16791e41bd7851ff00b5b15db2893505ae18ba

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Instrumentation

Citations in the corpus

A Census of Photometrically Selected Little Red Dots at 4 < z < 9 in JWST Blank Fields (2024, background): “In both redshift bins we find that our red compact objects constitute roughly 3 − 5% of the total star-forming galaxy populations (Bouwens et al. 2021), consistent with the spectroscopic samples of red-dots (Greene et al. 2023).”
On the stunning abundance of super-early, luminous galaxies revealed by JWST (2022, methodology): “Interestingly, though, our solution is about a factor 10 above the extrapolated Bouwens et al. (2021) Schechter fit; it is instead consistent with the Bowler et al. (2020) double-power law extrapolation.”
The evolution of the galaxy UV luminosity function at redshifts z ≃ 8 – 15 from deep JWST and ground-based near-infrared imaging (2022, background): “…with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and Spitzer have revealed galaxy evolution extending out to redshifts 𝑧 ' 10 (e.g. Ellis et al. 2013; McLure et al. 2013; Oesch et al. 2014, 2018; Bowler et al. 2014, 2015, 2020; Finkelstein et al. 2015; McLeod et al. 2015, 2016; Bouwens et al. 2021, 2022).”
A JWST/NIRSpec First Census of Broad-line AGNs at z = 4–7: Detection of 10 Faint AGNs with M BH ∼ 106–108 M ⊙ and Their Host Galaxy Properties (2023, background): “The gray symbols show the number densities of galaxies (diamond: Harikane et al. 2022, square: Bouwens et al. 2021, triangle: Bowler et al. 2015, 2017, circle: Finkelstein et al. 2015).”
A Comprehensive Study of Galaxies at z ∼ 9–16 Found in the Early JWST Data: Ultraviolet Luminosity Functions and Cosmic Star Formation History at the Pre-reionization Epoch (2022, methodology): “…redshift evolution from z∼ 3 to 10 with a decrease in the normalization f * and an increase in the faint-end slope α, and no evolution of characteristic luminosity L* on the basis of the Schechter function parameterization (Bouwens et al. 2015, 2021; Finkelstein et al. 2015a; Ishigaki et al. 2018).”
Early Results from GLASS-JWST. III. Galaxy Candidates at z ∼9–15 (2022, methodology): “At z∼9-11 we expect 1.7+1.1−0.6 on the basis of the z∼9 and z∼10 UV LFs by Bouwens et al. (2021) and Oesch et al. (2018), respectively, and as many as 6.8 objects at z∼9-11 on the basis of the model by Mason et al. (2015).”
Two Remarkably Luminous Galaxy Candidates at z ≈ 10–12 Revealed by JWST (2022, background): “This is a general trend of model predictions: a relatively rapid evolution of the LF at z > 10, driven by the underlying evolution of the dark matter halo mass function (see also Oesch et al. 2018; Tacchella et al. 2018; Bouwens et al. 2021).”
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: A Candidate z ∼ 12 Galaxy in Early JWST CEERS Imaging (2022, background): “Results in the literature were mixed, with some studies finding evidence for an accelerated decline in the SFRD (e.g., Oesch et al. 2018; Bouwens et al. 2021), while others found that observations supported a continued smooth decline (e.g., Coe et al. 2013; McLeod et al. 2016; Finkelstein & Bagley…”
The GLASS-JWST Early Release Science Program. I. Survey Design and Release Plans (2022, background): “The images will provide new information on their abundances, stellar masses, and star formation histories (Roberts-Borsani et al. 2021), as well as on the size–luminosity relation (Grazian et al. 2012; Bowler et al. 2017; Bouwens et al. 2021, see also Yang et al. 2022, submitted).”