Evolution of the H$\beta$+[OIII] and [OII] luminosity functions and the [OII] star-formation history of the Universe up to $z$ ~ 5 from HiZELS

TL;DR

This study analyzes the evolution of Hβ+[OIII] and [OII] luminosity functions from redshift 0.8 to 5 using the largest sample to date, revealing key changes in galaxy properties and star-formation history over cosmic time.

Contribution

First self-consistent analysis of Hβ+[OIII] and [OII] luminosity functions at high redshift with the largest sample, reducing cosmic variance and linking star-formation history to stellar mass buildup.

Findings

Luminosity function parameters evolve significantly with redshift.

The cosmic star-formation rate density peaks around z~3.

Hβ+[OIII] emitters are predominantly star-forming galaxies at high redshift.

Abstract

We investigate the evolution of the H$\beta$+[OIII] and [OII] luminosity functions from $z \sim 0.8$ to $\sim5$ in four redshift slices per emission line using data from the High-{\it z} Emission Line Survey (HiZELS). This is the first time that the H$\beta$+[OIII] and [OII] luminosity functions have been studied at these redshifts in a self-consistent analysis. This is also the largest sample of [OII] and H$\beta$+[OIII] emitters (3475 and 3298 emitters, respectively) in this redshift range, with large co-moving volumes $\sim 1 \times 10^6$ Mpc$^{-3}$ in two independent volumes (COSMOS and UDS), greatly reducing the effects of cosmic variance. The emitters were selected by a combination of photometric redshift and color-color selections, as well as spectroscopic follow-up, including recent spectroscopic observations using DEIMOS and MOSFIRE on the Keck Telescopes and FMOS on Subaru. We find a strong increase in $L_\star$ and a decrease in $\phi_\star$ for both H$\beta$+[OIII] and [OII] emitters. We derive the [OII] star-formation history of the Universe since $z\sim5$ and find that the cosmic SFRD rises from $z \sim 5$ to $\sim 3$ and then drops towards $z \sim 0$. We also find that our star-formation history is able to reproduce the evolution of the stellar mass density up to $z\sim 5$ based only on a single tracer of star-formation. When comparing the H$\beta$+[OIII] SFRDs to the [OII] and H$\alpha$ SFRD measurements in the literature, we find that there is a remarkable agreement, suggesting that the H$\beta$+[OIII] sample is dominated by star-forming galaxies at high-$z$ rather than AGNs.