THE EVOLUTION OF THE FAINT END OF THE UV LUMINOSITY FUNCTION DURING THE PEAK EPOCH OF STAR FORMATION (1 < z < 3)

We present a robust measurement of the rest-frame UV luminosity function (LF) and its evolution during the peak epoch of cosmic star formation at 1 50% completeness in order to minimize these systematics, we still find that the faint-end slope is steep and getting steeper with redshift, though with slightly shallower (less negative) values (alpha = -1.55 +/- 0.06, -1.69 +/- 0.07, and -1.79 +/- 0.08 for z similar to 1.3, 1.9, and 2.6, respectively). Finally, we conclude that the faint star-forming galaxies with UV magnitudes of -18.5 < M-UV < -12.5 covered in this study produce the majority (55%-60%) of the unobscured UV luminosity density at 1 < z < 3.Science and Technology Facilities Council [ST/L00075X/1, ST/F001166/1]; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS); NASA [NAS 5-26555]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu