The \(z \sim 2\) \(\rm{[O\ III]}\) Luminosity Function of Grism-selected Emission-line Galaxies

• Published in: arXiv.org
• Main Authors: Bowman, William P, Ciardullo, Robin, Zeimann, Gregory R, Gronwall, Caryl, Jeong, Donghui, Nagaraj, Gautam, Abelson, Cullen, Weiss, Laurel H, Molina, Mallory, Schneider, Donald P
• Format: Paper
• Language: English
• Published: Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 28.09.2021
• Subjects: Cosmology; Galactic evolution; Galaxies; Luminosity; Missions; Space telescopes; Star & galaxy formation; Star formation; Stars & galaxies
• ISSN: 2331-8422
• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2108.02222

Upcoming missions such as Euclid and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) will use emission-line selected galaxies to address a variety of questions in cosmology and galaxy evolution in the \(z>1\) universe. The optimal observing strategy for these programs relies upon knowing the number of galaxies that will be found and the bias of the galaxy population. Here we measure the \(\rm{[O\ III]}\ \lambda 5007\) luminosity function for a vetted sample of 1951 \(m_{\rm J+JH+H} < 26\) galaxies with unambiguous redshifts between \(1.90 < z < 2.35\), which were selected using HST/WFC3 G141 grism frames made available by the 3D-HST program. These systems are directly analogous to the galaxies that will be identified by the Euclid and Roman missions, which will utilize grism spectroscopy to find \(\rm{[O\ III]}\ \lambda 5007\)-emitting galaxies at \(0.8 \lesssim z \lesssim 2.7\) and \(1.7 \lesssim z \lesssim 2.8\), respectively. We interpret our results in the context of the expected number counts for these upcoming missions. Finally, we combine our dust-corrected \(\rm{[O\ III]}\) luminosities with rest-frame ultraviolet star formation rates to present a new calibration of the SFR density associated with \(1.90 < z < 2.35\) \(\rm{[O\ III]}\)-emitting galaxies. We find that these grism-selected galaxies contain roughly half of the total star formation activity at \(z\sim2\).