Van Breukelen, C.;
Jarvis, M.J.;
Venemans, B.P.;
(2005)
The luminosity function of Lyα emitters at 2.3 < z < 4.6 from integral-field spectroscopy.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
, 359
(3)
pp. 895-905.
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08916.x.
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Abstract
We have used Visible MultiObject Spectrograph Integral-Field Unit observations centred on a radio galaxy at z= 2.9 to search for Lyα emitters within a comoving volume of ∼104 Mpc3 . We find 14 Lyα emitters with flux >1.4 × 10−20 W m−2 , yielding a comoving space density of 0.0018+0.0006−0.0005 Mpc−3 . We fit a Schechter luminosity function that agrees well with previous studies both at similar redshift (z∼ 3.4) and higher redshift (z∼ 5.7) . We therefore find no evidence for evolution in the properties of Lyα emitters between 3 < z < 6 , although our sample is small. By summing the star-formation rates of the individual Lyα emitters we find a total cosmic star-formation rate density of ρSFR= 6.7 ± 0.5 × 10−3 M⊙ yr−1 Mpc−3 . Integrating over the luminosity function for the combined Lyα surveys at z∼ 3.4 and accounting for the difference in obscuration between the Lyα line and the ultraviolet-continuum yields an estimate of ρSFR∼ 2.2 × 10−2 M⊙ yr−1 Mpc−3 , in line with previous multi-colour and narrow-band surveys of high-redshift star-forming galaxies. The detection of high-redshift emission-line galaxies in our volumetric search shows that the unique capabilities of wide-field integral-field spectroscopy are well suited to searching for high-redshift galaxies in a relatively unbiased manner.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The luminosity function of Lyα emitters at 2.3 < z < 4.6 from integral-field spectroscopy |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08916.x |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08916.x |
| Language: | English |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Physics and Astronomy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10126 |
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