The faint end of the 250 micron luminosity function at z < 0.5

Abstract

Aims. We aim to study the 250 micron luminosity function (LF) down to much fainter luminosities than achieved by previous efforts. Methods. We developed a modified stacking method to reconstruct the 250 micron LF using optically selected galaxies from the SDSS survey and Herschel maps of the GAMA equatorial fields and Stripe 82. Our stacking method not only recovers the mean 250 micron luminosities of galaxies that are too faint to be individually detected, but also their underlying distribution functions. Results. We find very good agreement with previous measurements in the overlapping luminosity range. More importantly, we are able to derive the LF down to much fainter luminosities (around 25 times fainter) than achieved by previous studies. We find strong positive luminosity evolution \propto (1 + z)^4.89\pm1.07 and moderate negative density evolution \propto (1 + z)^-1.02\pm0.54 over the redshift range z=[0.02, 0.5].

5 pages including appendix, 4 figures, accepted for publication as a letter in A&A

References in corpus (8)

• The EAGLE project: Simulating the evolution and assembly of galaxies and their environments
• K-corrections and filter transformations in the ultraviolet, optical, and near infrared
• The Cosmic Infrared Background Resolved by Spitzer. Contributions of Mid-Infrared Galaxies to the Far-Infrared Background
• Over half of the far-infrared background light comes from galaxies at z >= 1.2
• Spitzer Deep and Wide Legacy Mid- and Far-Infrared Number Counts and Lower Limits of Cosmic Infrared Background
• Herschel-ATLAS/GAMA: a census of dust in optically selected galaxies from stacking at submillimetre wavelengths
• Estimating the total infrared luminosity of galaxies up to z~2 from mid- and far-infrared observations
• The Herschel-ATLAS: Evolution of the 250um luminosity function out to z=0.5

Cited by in corpus (5)

• The New Galaxy Evolution Paradigm Revealed by the Herschel Surveys
• A multi-wavelength de-blended Herschel view of the statistical properties of dusty star-forming galaxies across cosmic time
• The bright end of the infrared luminosity functions and the abundance of hyperluminous infrared galaxies
• Infrared luminosity functions and dust mass functions in the EAGLE simulation
• HSC-CLAUDS survey: The star formation rate functions since z ~ 2 and comparison with hydrodynamical simulations