Global Star Formation Rate Density over 0.7 < z < 1.9
Abstract
We determine the global star formation rate (SFR) density at 0.7 < z < 1.9 using emission-line-selected galaxies identified in Hubble Space Telescope-Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph (HST-NICMOS) grism spectroscopy observations. Observing in a pure parallel mode throughout HST Cycles 12 and 13, our survey covers ~104 arcmin^2 from which we select 80 galaxies with likely redshifted Hα emission lines. In several cases, a somewhat weaker [O III] doublet emission is also detected. The Hα luminosity range of the emission-line galaxy sample is 4.4 × 10^(41) < L(Hα) < 1.5 × 10^(43) erg s^(–1). In this range, the luminosity function is well described by a Schechter function with φ* = (4.24 ± 3.55) × 10^(–3) Mpc^(–3), L* = (2.88 ± 1.58) × 10^(42) erg s^(–1), and α = –1.39 ± 0.43. We derive a volume-averaged SFR density of 0.138 ± 0.058 M⊙ yr^(–1) Mpc^(–3) at z = 1.4 without an extinction correction. Subdividing the redshift range, we find SFR densities of 0.088 ± 0.056 M⊙ yr^(–1) Mpc^(–3) at z = 1.1 and 0.265 ± 0.174 M⊙ yr^(–1) Mpc^(–3) at z = 1.6. The overall star formation rate density is consistent with previous studies using Hα when the same average extinction correction is applied, confirming that the cosmic peak of star formation occurs at z > 1.5.
Additional Information
© 2009 The American Astronomical Society. Received 2008 September 13; accepted 2009 February 3; published 2009 April 20. We would like to thank the anonymous referee for valuable comments. This work was supported by the Spitzer Visiting Graduate Student Fellowship program. H. Shim was supported in part by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF) grant No. 2009-0063616, funded by the Korea government (MEST).Attached Files
Published - Shim2009p2248Astrophys_J.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 15395
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20090828-100223529
- 2009-0063616
- Korea Science and Engineering Foundation (KOSEF)
- Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (Korea)
- Created
-
2009-08-28Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-08Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC)