The UV Galaxy Luminosity Function in the Local Universe from GALEX Data
Abstract
We present the results of a determination of the galaxy luminosity function at ultraviolet wavelengths at redshifts of from GALEX data. We determined the luminosity function in the GALEX FUV and NUV bands from a sample of galaxies with UV magnitudes between 17 and 20 that are drawn from a total of 56.73 deg^2 of GALEX fields overlapping the b_j-selected 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey. The resulting luminosity functions are fainter than previous UV estimates and result in total UV luminosity densities of 10^(25.55+/-0.12) ergs s^-1 Hz^-1 Mpc^-3 and 10^(25.72+/-0.12) ergs s^-1 Hz^-1 Mpc^-3 at 1530 Ang. and 2310 Ang., respectively. This corresponds to a local star formation rate density in agreement with previous estimates made with H-alpha-selected data for reasonable assumptions about the UV extinction.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0411364,
title = {The UV Galaxy Luminosity Function in the Local Universe from GALEX Data},
author = {Ted K. Wyder and Marie A. Treyer and Bruno Milliard and David Schiminovich and Stéphane Arnouts and Tamás Budavári and Tom A. Barlow and Luciana Bianchi and Yong-Ik Byun and José Donas and Karl Forster and Peter G. Friedman and Timothy M. Heckman and Patrick N. Jelinsky and Young-Wook Lee and Barry F. Madore and Roger F. Malina and D. Christopher Martin and Patrick Morrissey and Susan G. Neff and R. Michael Rich and Oswald H. W. Siegmund and Todd Small and Alex S. Szalay and Barry Y. Welsh},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0411364},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
This paper will be published as part of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) Astrophysical Journal Letters Special Issue. Links to the full set of papers will be available at http://www.galex.caltech.edu/PUBLICATIONS/ after November 22, 2004