TheGALEX-VVDS Measurement of the Evolution of the Far-Ultraviolet Luminosity Density and the Cosmic Star Formation Rate

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Abstract
In a companion Letter (Arnouts et al.) we present new measurements of the galaxy luminosity function at 1500 Å out to z ~ 1 using Galaxy Evolution Explorer VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey observations (1039 galaxies with NUV ≤ 24.5 and z > 0.2) and at higher z using existing data sets. In this Letter we use the same sample to study evolution of the FUV luminosity density ρ1500. We detect evolution consistent with a (1 + z)2.5±0.7 rise to z ~ 1 and (1 + z)0.5±0.4 for z > 1. The luminosity density from the most UV-luminous galaxies (UVLGs) is undergoing dramatic evolution (30 times) between 0 < z < 1. UVLGs are responsible for a significant fraction (>25%) of the total far-ultraviolet luminosity density at z ~ 1. We measure dust attenuation and star formation rates of our sample galaxies and determine the star formation rate density () as a function of redshift, both uncorrected and corrected for dust. We find good agreement with other measures of in the rest ultraviolet and Hα given the still significant uncertainties in the attenuation correction.
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