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

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • R. J. Bouwens
  • P. A. Oesch
  • M. Stefanon
  • G. Illingworth
  • Geneviève M Labbe
  • N. Reddy
  • H. Atek
  • M. Montes
  • R. Naidu
  • T. Nanayakkara
  • E. Nelson
  • S. Wilkins

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 similar to 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 arcmin(2). Our determinations include galaxies at z similar to 2-3 leveraging the deep HDUV, UVUDF, and ERS WFC3/UVIS observations available over an similar to 150 arcmin(2) area in the GOODS-North and GOODS-South regions. All together, our collective samples include >24,000 sources, >2.3x larger than previous selections with HST. We identify 5766, 6332, 7240, 3449, 1066, 601, 246, and 33 sources at z similar to 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9, respectively. Combining our results with an earlier z similar to 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 alpha from alpha similar to -2.4 at z similar to 10 to alpha similar to -1.5 at z similar to 2, (2) minimal evolution in the characteristic luminosity M* at z >= 2.5, and (3) a monotonic increase in the normalization log(10) phi* from z similar to 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 similar to 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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number47
JournalAstronomical Journal
Volume162
Issue number2
Number of pages18
ISSN0004-6256
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Aug 2021

    Research areas

  • ULTRA-DEEP FIELD, LYMAN-BREAK GALAXIES, HUBBLE FRONTIER FIELDS, EARLY RELEASE SCIENCE, FAINT-END SLOPE, STELLAR MASS DENSITY, BRIGHT END, LY-ALPHA, FORMING GALAXIES, DUST OBSCURATION

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