The Ultraviolet Galaxy Luminosity Function in the Local Universe from GALEX Data

/ Authors

T. Wyder, M. Treyer, B. Milliard, D. Schiminovich, D. Schiminovich, S. Arnouts, T. Budav'ari, T. Barlow, L. Bianchi, Y. Byun

and 16 more authors

J. Donas, K. Forster, P. Friedman, T. Heckman, P. Jelinsky, Young-Wook Lee, B. Madore, R. Malina, D. C. Martin, P. Morrissey, S. Neff, R. Rich, O. Siegmund, T. Small, A. Szalay, B. Welsh

/ Abstract

We present the results of a determination of the galaxy luminosity function at ultraviolet wavelengths at redshifts of z = 0.0-0.1 from Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) data. We determined the luminosity function in the GALEX far-UV and near-UV bands from a sample of galaxies with UV magnitudes between 17 and 20 that are drawn from a total of 56.73 deg2 of GALEX fields overlapping the bJ-selected Two-Degree Field Galaxy Redshift Survey. The resulting luminosity functions are fainter than previous UV estimates and result in total UV luminosity densities of 1025.55±0.12 and 1025.72±0.12 ergs s-1 Hz-1 Mpc-3 at 1530 and 2310 Å, respectively. This corresponds to a local star formation rate density in agreement with previous estimates made with Hα-selected data for reasonable assumptions about the UV extinction.

Journal: The Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI: 10.1086/424735