The galaxy luminosity function at z ≃ 6 and evidence for rapid evolution in the bright end from z ≃ 7 to 5

By R. Bowler, J. Dunlop, R. McLure, H. McCracken, B. Milvang-Jensen, H. Furusawa, Yoshiaki Taniguchi, O. Fèvre, Johan Peter Uldall Fynbo, Michael J. Jarvis and 1 more. 2014

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We present the results of a search for bright (-22.7 5. We calculate the bright end of the rest-frame Ultra-Violet (UV) luminosity function (LF) at z ~ 6. The galaxy number counts are a factor of ~1.7 lower than predicted by the recent LF determination by Bouwens et al.. In comparison to other smaller area studies, we find an evolution in the characteristic magnitude between z ~ 5 and z ~ 7 of dM* ~ 0.4 mag, and show that a double power-law or a Schechter function can equally well describe the LF at z = 6. Furthermore, the bright-end of the LF appears to steepen from z ~ 7 to z ~ 5, which could indicate the onset of mass quenching or the rise of dust obscuration, a conclusion supported by comparing the observed LFs to a range of theoretical model predictions.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d806e6ff02af4517ca8207d24dce17d5c70cbde5

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Citations in the corpus

THE EVOLUTION OF THE GALAXY REST-FRAME ULTRAVIOLET LUMINOSITY FUNCTION OVER THE FIRST TWO BILLION YEARS (2014, result): “Given the results at similar magnitudes at lower redshifts, it is highly unlikely that there is such a steep drop in number density over only a 0.5 mag interval, although future large area studies can better investigate the difference (Bowler et al. 2015).”
The bolometric quasar luminosity function at z = 0–7 (2020, background): “Bowler et al. 2015; Bouwens et al. 2015; Parsa et al. 2016; Finkelstein 2016; Mehta et al. 2017; Atek et al. 2015, 2018; Ishigaki et al. 2018) and theoretical studies (Jaacks et al. 2012; Tacchella et al. 2013; Mason et al. 2015; Wilkins et al. 2017; Tacchella et al. 2018; Yung et al. 2018).”
The Complete CEERS Early Universe Galaxy Sample: A Surprisingly Slow Evolution of the Space Density of Bright Galaxies at z ∼ 8.5–14.5 (2023, unknown): “We therefore ﬁ t a DPL function to our observations, following evidence that this functional form better represents the UV luminosity function at high redshifts than a Schechter function ( e.g., Bowler et al. 2015, 2020; Finkelstein & Bagley 2022 ) .”
Radiation Backgrounds at Cosmic Dawn: X-Rays from Compact Binaries (2016, unknown): “…in Figure 1, this is an updated version of the formula given in Equation (15) of Madau & Dickinson (2014) that better reproduces a number of recent 4 ∼ < z ∼< 10 results (Bowler et al. 2015; Finkelstein et al. 2015; Ishigaki et al. 2015; McLeod et al. 2015; Oesch et al. 2015; McLeod et al. 2016).”
The COSMOS2015 galaxy stellar mass function . Thirteen billion years of stellar mass assembly in ten snapshots (2017, background): “Similarly, Bowler et al. (2015, 2017) find evidence that the UV LF of z ' 7 galaxies is better fit with a double power law.”
Cosmic Dawn (CoDa): the first radiation-hydrodynamics simulation of reionization and galaxy formation in the Local Universe (2015, result): “The latter are taken from Bouwens et al. (2015) and Finkelstein et al. (2015), which have been shown to be in broad agreement with a number of other studies including Oesch et al. (2013) and Bowler et al. (2015).”
The evolution of the galaxy UV luminosity function at redshifts z ≃ 8 – 15 from deep JWST and ground-based near-infrared imaging (2022, methodology): “As shown by this work, and the results of Bowler et al. (2014, 2015, 2020), a double-power law (DPL) function is a more suitable fit to the UV LF at 𝑧 ≥ 8.”
SUBARU HIGH-z EXPLORATION OF LOW-LUMINOSITY QUASARS (SHELLQs). I. DISCOVERY OF 15 QUASARS AND BRIGHT GALAXIES AT 5.7 < z < 6.9 (2016, unknown): “Figure 2 displays the luminosity functions of high-z quasars (Willott et al. 2010b; Kashikawa et al. 2015) and LBGs (Bouwens et al. 2015; Bowler et al. 2015).”
THE EVOLUTION OF THE GALAXY STELLAR MASS FUNCTION AT z = 4–8: A STEEPENING LOW-MASS-END SLOPE WITH INCREASING REDSHIFT (2015, background): “Over the past few years, a number of studies have found that the exponential cutoff of the UV luminosity function appears to weaken at z ≥ 7 (Bowler et al. 2014; Finkelstein et al. 2015; Bowler et al. 2015).”
The z = 9-10 galaxy population in the Hubble Frontier Fields and CLASH surveys: the z = 9 luminosity function and further evidence for a smooth decline in ultraviolet luminosity density at z≥ 8 (2016, methodology): “The LF at redshift z = 6− 8 has been the subject of numerous studies in the recent literature, and is now largely well-understood at magnitudes fainter than M1500 ' −21 (see McLure et al. 2013; Finkelstein et al. 2014; Bowler et al. 2014, 2015; Bouwens et al. 2015).”
Consistent modelling of the meta-galactic UV background and the thermal/ionization history of the intergalactic medium (2018, background): “(15) of Madau & Dickinson (2014), and reproduces recent results in the range 4 ∼< z ∼< 10 (Bowler et al. 2015; Finkelstein et al. 2015; Ishigaki et al. 2015; McLeod et al. 2015; Oesch et al. 2015; McLeod et al. 2016).”
The z ∼ 6 Luminosity Function Fainter than −15 mag from the Hubble Frontier Fields: The Impact of Magnification Uncertainties (2016, result): “We chose −20 mag somewhat arbitrarily to be close enough to the knee of the LF, i.e., ∼ −21 mag, while not being so bright as to be affected by uncertainties in the assumed characteristic luminosity or form of the bright end of the LF (Schechter vs. power-law: i.e., Bowler et al. 2015).”
Evolution of the AGN UV luminosity function from redshift 7.5 (2018, background): “…may also be consistent with the shallow bright-end slopes of the z ∼ 7 UV luminosity function of galaxies relative to a Schechter function (Bowler et al. 2012, 2014; Bradley et al. 2014; Bowler et al. 2015) and the hard spectra of these galaxies (Stark et al. 2015a,b, 2017; Laporte et al. 2017).”
Dust Attenuation Curves in the Local Universe: Demographics and New Laws for Star-forming Galaxies and High-redshift Analogs (2018, background): “This is often the case for high redshift galaxies (e.g.,Bouwens et al. 2014; Smit et al. 2014; Bowler et al. 2015; Finkelstein et al. 2015; Oesch et al. 2014), and will be common for earlyuniverse galaxy populations to be studied by JWST (unless accompanied by observations made by ALMA).”