THE GALAXY OPTICAL LUMINOSITY FUNCTION FROM THE AGN AND GALAXY EVOLUTION SURVEY

We present the galaxy optical luminosity function for the redshift range 0.05 < z < 0.75 from the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey, a spectroscopic survey of 7.6 deg2 in the Boötes field of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey. Our statistical sample is composed of 12,473 galaxies with known redshifts down to I = 20.4 (AB). Our results at low redshift are consistent with those from Sloan Digital Sky Survey; at higher redshift, we find strong evidence for evolution in the luminosity function, including differential evolution between blue and red galaxies. We find that the luminosity density evolves as (1 + z)(0.54 ± 0.64) for red galaxies and (1 + z)(1.64 ± 0.39) for blue galaxies.