2001/11/30 by L. Tresse, S. J. Maddox, O. Le Fèvre +3
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Balmer series #Emission spectrum #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Line (geometry) #Luminosity #Luminosity function #Luminous infrared galaxy #Redshift #Star formation #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05919.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc.337:369,2002 · 16 pages, 16 figures and 3 tables included, figures and text updated, same results as in the 1st version, accepted in MNRAS
arxiv created 2002/08/21 · openalex publication_date 2002/11/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We describe ISAAC/ESO-VLT observations of the Hαλ6563 Balmer line of 33 field galaxies from the Canada—France Redshift Survey (CFRS) with redshifts selected between 0.5 and 1.1. We detect Hα in emission in 30 galaxies and compare the properties of this sample with the low-redshift sample of CFRS galaxies at z∼ 0.2. We find that the Hα luminosity, L(Hα), is tightly correlated to M(BAB) in the same way for both the low- and high-redshift samples. L(Hα) is also correlated to L([O ii]λ3727), and again the relation appears to be similar at low and high redshifts. The ratio L(lsqb;O ii])/L(Hα) decreases for brighter galaxies by as much as a factor of 2 on average. Derived from the Hα luminosity function, the comoving Hα luminosity density increases by a factor 12 from 〈z〉= 0.2 to 〈z〉= 1.3. Our results confirm a strong rise of the star formation rate (SFR) at z < 1.3, proportional to (1 +z)4.1±0.3 (with H0 = 50 km s−1 Mpc−1, q0 = 0.5). We find an average SFR(2800 Å)/SFR (Hα) ratio of 3.2 using the Kennicutt SFR transformations. This corresponds to the dust correction that is required to make the near-ultraviolet data consistent with the reddening-corrected Hα data within the self-contained, I-selected CFRS sample.