{"status":"public","title":"The evolution of the UV luminosity and stellar mass functions of Lyman-α emitters from z ∼ 2 to z ∼ 6","quality_controlled":"1","scopus_import":"1","publisher":"Oxford University Press","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","date_created":"2022-07-07T10:02:59Z","oa":1,"oa_version":"Preprint","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"We measure the evolution of the rest-frame UV luminosity function (LF) and the stellar mass function (SMF) of Lyman-α (Ly α) emitters (LAEs) from z ∼ 2 to z ∼ 6 by exploring ∼4000 LAEs from the SC4K sample. We find a correlation between Ly α luminosity (LLy α) and rest-frame UV (MUV), with best fit MUV=−1.6+0.2−0.3log10(LLyα/ergs−1)+47+12−11 and a shallower relation between LLy α and stellar mass (M⋆), with best fit log10(M⋆/M⊙)=0.9+0.1−0.1log10(LLyα/ergs−1)−28+4.0−3.8⁠. An increasing LLy α cut predominantly lowers the number density of faint MUV and low M⋆ LAEs. We estimate a proxy for the full UV LFs and SMFs of LAEs with simple assumptions of the faint end slope. For the UV LF, we find a brightening of the characteristic UV luminosity (M∗UV⁠) with increasing redshift and a decrease of the characteristic number density (Φ*). For the SMF, we measure a characteristic stellar mass (⁠M∗⋆/M⊙⁠) increase with increasing redshift, and a Φ* decline. However, if we apply a uniform luminosity cut of log10(LLyα/ergs−1)≥43.0⁠, we find much milder to no evolution in the UV and SMF of LAEs. The UV luminosity density (ρUV) of the full sample of LAEs shows moderate evolution and the stellar mass density (ρM) decreases, with both being always lower than the total ρUV and ρM of more typical galaxies but slowly approaching them with increasing redshift. Overall, our results indicate that both ρUV and ρM of LAEs slowly approach the measurements of continuum-selected galaxies at z > 6, which suggests a key role of LAEs in the epoch of reionization."}],"main_file_link":[{"url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.00007","open_access":"1"}],"issue":"1","extern":"1","date_published":"2021-07-01T00:00:00Z","publication_status":"published","date_updated":"2022-08-18T10:51:47Z","article_processing_charge":"No","month":"07","day":"01","type":"journal_article","keyword":["Space and Planetary Science","Astronomy and Astrophysics","galaxies: evolution","galaxies: high-redshift","galaxies: luminosity function","mass function"],"acknowledgement":"This research made use of Astropy, a community developed core Python package for Astronomy (Astropy Collaboration et al. 2013). topcat, a graphical tool for manipulating tabular data, was also utilized in this analysis (Taylor 2005). SG would like to thank Nastasha Wijers for the discussion on the column density distribution in EAGLE. SC gratefully acknowledges support from Swiss National Science Foundation grants PP00P2 163824 and PP00P2 190092, and from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant agreement No 864361. GP acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) and from the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA).","year":"2021","volume":505,"intvolume":"       505","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"_id":"11524","article_type":"original","citation":{"short":"S. Santos, D. Sobral, J. Butterworth, A. Paulino-Afonso, B. Ribeiro, E. da Cunha, J. Calhau, A.A. Khostovan, J.J. Matthee, P. Arrabal Haro, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 505 (2021) 1117–1134.","ama":"Santos S, Sobral D, Butterworth J, et al. The evolution of the UV luminosity and stellar mass functions of Lyman-α emitters from z ∼ 2 to z ∼ 6. <i>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</i>. 2021;505(1):1117-1134. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1218\">10.1093/mnras/stab1218</a>","apa":"Santos, S., Sobral, D., Butterworth, J., Paulino-Afonso, A., Ribeiro, B., da Cunha, E., … Arrabal Haro, P. (2021). The evolution of the UV luminosity and stellar mass functions of Lyman-α emitters from z ∼ 2 to z ∼ 6. <i>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</i>. Oxford University Press. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1218\">https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1218</a>","chicago":"Santos, S, D Sobral, J Butterworth, A Paulino-Afonso, B Ribeiro, E da Cunha, J Calhau, A A Khostovan, Jorryt J Matthee, and P Arrabal Haro. “The Evolution of the UV Luminosity and Stellar Mass Functions of Lyman-α Emitters from z ∼ 2 to z ∼ 6.” <i>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</i>. Oxford University Press, 2021. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1218\">https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1218</a>.","ista":"Santos S, Sobral D, Butterworth J, Paulino-Afonso A, Ribeiro B, da Cunha E, Calhau J, Khostovan AA, Matthee JJ, Arrabal Haro P. 2021. The evolution of the UV luminosity and stellar mass functions of Lyman-α emitters from z ∼ 2 to z ∼ 6. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 505(1), 1117–1134.","ieee":"S. Santos <i>et al.</i>, “The evolution of the UV luminosity and stellar mass functions of Lyman-α emitters from z ∼ 2 to z ∼ 6,” <i>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</i>, vol. 505, no. 1. Oxford University Press, pp. 1117–1134, 2021.","mla":"Santos, S., et al. “The Evolution of the UV Luminosity and Stellar Mass Functions of Lyman-α Emitters from z ∼ 2 to z ∼ 6.” <i>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</i>, vol. 505, no. 1, Oxford University Press, 2021, pp. 1117–34, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1218\">10.1093/mnras/stab1218</a>."},"publication_identifier":{"eissn":["1365-2966"],"issn":["0035-8711"]},"external_id":{"arxiv":["2105.00007"]},"doi":"10.1093/mnras/stab1218","page":"1117-1134","author":[{"first_name":"S","last_name":"Santos","full_name":"Santos, S"},{"last_name":"Sobral","first_name":"D","full_name":"Sobral, D"},{"full_name":"Butterworth, J","first_name":"J","last_name":"Butterworth"},{"last_name":"Paulino-Afonso","first_name":"A","full_name":"Paulino-Afonso, A"},{"full_name":"Ribeiro, B","first_name":"B","last_name":"Ribeiro"},{"full_name":"da Cunha, E","last_name":"da Cunha","first_name":"E"},{"full_name":"Calhau, J","first_name":"J","last_name":"Calhau"},{"last_name":"Khostovan","first_name":"A A","full_name":"Khostovan, A A"},{"orcid":"0000-0003-2871-127X","id":"7439a258-f3c0-11ec-9501-9df22fe06720","full_name":"Matthee, Jorryt J","last_name":"Matthee","first_name":"Jorryt J"},{"full_name":"Arrabal Haro, P","first_name":"P","last_name":"Arrabal Haro"}],"publication":"Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society"}