The VIMOS VLT Deep Survey: star formation rate density of Lyα emitters from a sample of 217 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts 2 ≤ z ≤ 6.6
/ Authors
P. Cassata, O. Fèvre, B. Garilli, D. Maccagni, V. Brun, M. Scodeggio, L. Tresse, O. Ilbert, G. Zamorani, O. Cucciati
and 11 more authors
T. Contini, R. Bielby, Y. Mellier, H. McCracken, A. Pollo, A. Zanichelli, S. Bardelli, A. Cappi, L. Pozzetti, D. Vergani, E. Zucca
/ Abstract
Aims. The aim of this work is to study the contribution of the Lyα emitters to the star formation rate density (SFRD) of the Universe in the interval 2 1.5 × 10 ―18 erg/s/cm 2 are 33 galaxies/arcmin 2 and ∼4 x 10 ―2 Mpc ―3 , respectively. We find that the observed luminosity function (LF) of LAEs does not evolve from z = 2 to z = 6. This implies that, after correction for the redshift-dependent IGM absorption, the intrinsic luminosity function must have evolved significantly over 3 Gyr. The SFRD from LAE contributes around 20% of the SFRD at z = 2-3, while the LAE appear to be the dominant source of star formation producing ionizing photons in the early universe z ∼> 5-6, equivalent to Lyman Break galaxies.
Journal: Astronomy and Astrophysics