The HerMES SPIRE submillimeter local luminosity function
Abstract
Local luminosity functions are fundamental benchmarks for high-redshift galaxy formation and evolution studies as well as for models describing these processes. Determining the local luminosity function in the submillimeter range can help to better constrain in particular the bolometric luminosity density in the local Universe, and Herschel offers the first opportunity to do so in an unbiased way by imaging large sky areas at several submillimeter wavelengths. We present the first Herschel measurement of the submillimeter 0<z<0.2 local luminosity function and infrared bolometric (8-1000 m) local luminosity density based on SPIRE data from the HerMES Herschel Key Program over 14.7 deg^2. Flux measurements in the three SPIRE channels at 250, 350 and 500 \mum are combined with Spitzer photometry and archival data. We fit the observed optical-to-submillimeter spectral energy distribution of SPIRE sources and use the 1/V_{max} estimator to provide the first constraints on the monochromatic 250, 350 and 500 \mum as well as on the infrared bolometric (8-1000 \mum) local luminosity function based on Herschel data. We compare our results with modeling predictions and find a slightly more abundant local submillimeter population than predicted by a number of models. Our measurement of the infrared bolometric (8-1000 \mum) local luminosity function suggests a flat slope at low luminosity, and the inferred local luminosity density, 1.31_-0.21^+0.24 x 10^8 Lsun Mpc^-3, is consistent with the range of values reported in recent literature.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1005.2187,
title = {The HerMES SPIRE submillimeter local luminosity function},
author = {M. Vaccari and L. Marchetti and A. Franceschini and B. Altieri and A. Amblard and V. Arumugam and R. Auld and H. Aussel and T. Babbedge and A. Blain and J. Bock and A. Boselli and V. Buat and D. Burgarella and N. Castro-Rodriguez and A. Cava and P. Chanial and D. L. Clements and A. Conley and L. Conversi and A. Cooray and C. D. Dowell and E. Dwek and S. Dye and S. Eales and D. Elbaz and D. Farrah and M. Fox and W. Gear and J. Glenn and E. A. Gonzalez Solares and M. Griffin and M. Halpern and E. Hatziminaoglou and J. Huang and E. Ibar and K. Isaak and R. J. Ivison and G. Lagache and L. Levenson and N. Lu and S. Madden and B. Maffei and G. Mainetti and A. M. J. Mortier and H. T. Nguyen and B. O'Halloran and S. J. Oliver and A. Omont and M. J. Page and P. Panuzzo and A. Papageorgiou and C. P. Pearson and I. Perez-Fournon and M. Pohlen and J. I. Rawlings and G. Raymond and D. Rigopoulou and D. Rizzo and G. Rodighiero and I. G. Roseboom and M. Rowan-Robinson and M. Sanchez Portal and B. Schulz and Douglas Scott and N. Seymour and D. L. Shupe and A. J. Smith and J. A. Stevens and M. Symeonidis and M. Trichas and K. E. Tugwell and E. Valiante and I. Valtchanov and L. Vigroux and L. Wang and R. Ward and G. Wright and C. K. Xu and M. Zemcov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1005.2187},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Accepted for publication in the A&A Herschel Special Issue