The ultraviolet luminosity function of star-forming galaxies between redshifts of 0.6 and 1.2
McHardy, I.; Page, M. J.; Symeonidis, M.; Rawlings, J. I.; Seymour, N.; Kennea, J. A.; Dwelly, T.; Mason, K. O.; Walton, D. J.; Breeveld, A. A.; Ferreras, I.; Loaring, N. S.; Sharma, M.; Sasseen, T. P.
United Kingdom, Australia, United States, Spain
Abstract
We use ultraviolet (UV) imaging taken with the XMM-Newton Optical Monitor telescope (XMM-OM), covering 280 arcmin2 in the UVW1 band (λeff = 2910 Å) to measure rest-frame UV 1500-Å luminosity functions of galaxies with redshifts z between 0.6 and 1.2. The XMM-OM data are supplemented by a large body of optical and infrared imaging to provide photometric redshifts. The XMM-OM data have a significantly narrower point spread function (resulting in less source confusion) and simpler K-correction than the GALEX data previously employed in this redshift range. UV-bright active galactic nuclei are excluded to ensure that the luminosity functions relate directly to the star-forming galaxy population. Binned luminosity functions and parametric Schechter-function fits are derived in two redshift intervals: 0.6 < z < 0.8 and 0.8 < z < 1.2. We find that the luminosity function evolves such that the characteristic absolute magnitude M* is brighter for 0.8 < z < 1.2 than for 0.6 < z < 0.8.