Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2012-02-15
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics
19 pages, 10 Figures, submitted to MNRAS
Scientific paper
This paper presents new deep and wide narrow-band surveys undertaken with UKIRT, Subaru and the VLT; a unique combined effort to select large, robust samples of H-alpha (Ha) emitters at z=0.40, 0.84, 1.47 and 2.23 (corresponding to look-back times of 4.2, 7.0, 9.2 and 10.6 Gyrs) in a uniform manner over ~2 deg^2 in the COSMOS and UDS fields. The deep multi-epoch Ha surveys reach ~3M_sun/yr out to z=2.2 for the first time, while the wide area and the coverage over two independent fields allow to greatly overcome cosmic variance. A total of 1742, 637, 515 and 556 Ha emitters are homogeneously selected at z=0.40, 0.84, 1.47 and 2.23, respectively, and used to determine the Ha luminosity function and its evolution. The faint-end slope is found to be -1.60+-0.08 over z=0-2.23, showing no evolution. The characteristic luminosity of SF galaxies, L*, evolves significantly as log[L*(z)]=0.45z+log[L*(z=0)]. This is the first time Ha has been used to trace SF activity with a single homogeneous survey at z=0.4-2.23. Overall, the evolution seen in Ha is in good agreement with the evolution seen using inhomogeneous compilations of other tracers of star formation, such as FIR and UV, jointly pointing towards the bulk of the evolution in the last 11 Gyrs being driven by a strong luminosity increase from z~0 to z~2.2. Our uniform analysis allows to derive the Ha star formation history of the Universe, for which the simple parametrisation log(SFRD)=-2.1/(1+z) is a good approximation for z<2.23. Both the shape and normalisation of the Ha star formation history are consistent with the measurements of the stellar mass density growth, confirming that our Ha analysis traces the bulk of the formation of stars in the Universe up to z~2.2. The star formation activity over the last ~11Gyrs is responsible for producing ~95% of the total stellar mass density observed locally today.
Best Philip N.
Cirasuolo Michele
Geach James E.
Kurk Jaron
Matsuda Yuichi
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