Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 1995
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995apj...455l...1g&link_type=abstract
Astrophysical Journal Letters v.455, p.L1
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
355
Galaxies: Luminosity Function, Mass Function, Galaxies: Fundamental Parameters
Scientific paper
The Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) survey is a long-term project aimed at finding and analyzing star-forming galaxies detected by their H alpha emission in Schmidt objective-prism plates. The instrumental setup limits the volume of the universe surveyed to a redshift z <~ 0.045. So far we have discovered several hundred emission-line galaxies (ELGs) undergoing star formation at a wide range of levels. Analyzing a complete sample of ELGs from the UCM survey, we have computed the H alpha luminosity function for the star-forming galaxies in the surveyed volume of the universe. A Schechter function provides a good fit to the H alpha luminosity function with the following parameters: alpha = -1.3 +/- 0.2, L*(H alpha ) = 1042.15+/-0.08 ergs s-1, and phi * = 10-3.2+/-0.2 Mpc-3 for H0 = 50 km s-1 Mpc-1. Integrating over the full range of luminosities, we obtain an H alpha luminosity density of 1039.1+/-0.2 ergs s-1 Mpc-3. Using the H alpha emission as a star formation rate (SFR) estimator, this translates into a SFR density for the local universe of 0.013^{+0.007}_{-0.005} M&sun; yr-1 Mpc-3 in star-forming galaxies with EW(H alpha + [N II]) > 10 A and z <~ 0.045 for a Scalo initial mass function. This is the first observational determination of this quantity, which will provide a direct test of current galaxy formation and evolution models.
Aragon-Salamanca Alfonso
Gallego Jesus
Rego M.
Zamorano Jaime
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