Universal Conditional Distribution Function of [O ii] Luminosity of Galaxies, and Prediction for the [O ii] Luminosity Function at Redshift z < 3

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 908; no. 1; pp. 43 - 58
• Main Authors: Gao, Hongyu, Jing, Y. P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 01.02.2021; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Astrophysics; Bayesian analysis; Dark energy; Distribution functions; Emission line galaxies; Emission lines; Emission measurements; Emitters; Galactic evolution; Galaxies; Galaxy distribution; Luminosity; Luminosity function; Observational errors; Polls & surveys; Predictions; Probability distribution; Probability distribution functions; Red shift; Redshift surveys; Star & galaxy formation; Star formation; Stars & galaxies
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/abd40f

The star-forming emission line galaxies (ELGs) with a strong [O ii] doublet are one of the main spectroscopic targets for the ongoing and upcoming fourth-generation galaxy redshift surveys. In this work, we measure the [O ii] luminosity L[O II] and the absolute magnitude in the near-ultraviolet (NUV) band MNUV for a large sample of galaxies in the redshift range 0.6 ≤ z < 1.45 from the Public Data Release 2 (PDR-2) of the VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). We aim to construct the intrinsic relationship between L[O II] and MNUV through Bayesian analysis. In particular, we develop two different methods to properly correct for the incompleteness effect and observational errors in the [O ii] emission line measurement. Our results indicate that the conditional distribution of L[O II] at a given MNUV can be well described by a universal probability distribution function (PDF), which is independent of MNUV and redshift. Convolving the L[O II] conditional PDF with the NUV luminosity function (LF) available in the literature, we make a prediction for [O ii] LFs at z < 3. The predicted [O ii] LFs are in good agreement with the observational results from the literature. Finally, we utilize the predicted [O ii] LFs to estimate the number counts of [O ii] emitters for the Subaru Prime Focus Spectrograph survey. This universal conditional PDF of L[O II] provides a novel way to optimize the source targeting strategy for [O ii] emitters in future galaxy redshift surveys, and to model [O ii] emitters in theories of galaxy formation.