The Sloan Digital Sky Survey: The Cosmic Spectrum and Star-Formation History

We measure the H{\alpha} and [OIII] emission line properties as well as specific star-formation rates (sSFR) of spectroscopically confirmed 3<z<6 galaxies in COSMOS from their observed colors vs. redshift evolution. Our model describes consistently the ensemble of galaxies including intrinsic properties (age, metallicity, star-formation history), dust-attenuation, and optical emission lines. We forward-model the measured H{\alpha} equivalent-widths (EW) to obtain the sSFR out...

The redshift dependence of the luminosity density in certain wavebands (e.g. UV and H-alpha) can be used to infer the history of star formation in the populations of galaxies producing this luminosity. This history is a useful datum in studies of galaxy evolution. It is therefore important to understand the errors that attend the inference of star formation rate densities from luminosity densities. This paper explores the self-consistency of star formation rate diagnostics by...

The optical luminosity function is a fundamental characterization of the galaxy population. A combination of earlier redshift surveys with two new surveys allows the first accurate determination of the evolution of the luminosity function with redshift, and reveals a marked steepening of the faint end slope. This effect is more profound for star-forming galaxies - there are 5-10 times as many star-forming galaxies at z~0.5 as there are locally. These results, together with hi...

I review a technique for interpreting faint galaxy data which traces the evolution with cosmic time of the galaxy luminosity density, as determined from several deep spectroscopic samples and the HDF. The method relies on the rest frame UV and near-IR continua of galaxies as indicators, for a given IMF and dust content, of their instantaneous SFR and total stellar mass, and offers the prospect of addressing in a coherent framework an important set of subjects: cosmic star for...

Star formation is arguably the most important physical process in the cosmos. It is a fundamental driver of galaxy evolution and the ultimate source of most of the energy emitted by galaxies. A correct interpretation of star formation rate (SFR) measures is therefore essential to our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. Unfortunately, however, no single SFR estimator is universally available or even applicable in all circumstances: the numerous galaxies found in d...

We present pure spectroscopic constraints on the UV luminosity functions and cosmic star formation rate (SFR) densities from 25 galaxies at $z_\mathrm{spec}=8.61-13.20$. By reducing the JWST/NIRSpec spectra taken in multiple programs of ERO, ERS, GO, and DDT with our analysis technique, we independently confirm 16 galaxies at $z_\mathrm{spec}=8.61-11.40$ including new redshift determinations, and a bright interloper at $z_\mathrm{spec}=4.91$ that was claimed as a photometric ...

This is a summary of arguments in favor of observing high-redshift star formation in the UV as presented at the Ringberg meeting in September 2000. The most rapidly star-forming galaxies are very dusty, easier to detect at 850um than in the UV, but less rapidly star-forming galaxies are less obscured by dust and as a result the comparatively faint galaxies that hosted most high-redshift star formation are easiest to detect in the UV. The correlation of star-formation rate and...

We use a large sample of galaxies from the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to calculate galaxy luminosity and stellar mass functions in the local Universe. We estimate k-corrections, evolution corrections, and stellar mass-to-light ratios (M/Ls) by fitting the galaxy colors with simple models. Our optical and near-infrared luminosity functions agree with most recent literature optical and near-infrared determinations within the uncert...

Recent advances in stellar population modelling and avalanches of data from mega-surveys have revived the interest in techniques to extract information about galaxy evolution from integrated spectra. This contribution provides an informal and (hopefully) pedagogical, but inevitably biased and incomplete introduction to this field. Emphasis is given to the several choices one has to make in the process of modelling galaxy spectra.

We present a star formation rate function (SFRF) at $z\sim4.5$ based on photometric data from rest UV to optical of galaxies in the CANDELS GOODS-South field using spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting. We evaluate the incompleteness of our sample and correct for it to properly confront the SFRF in this study with those estimated based on other probes. The SFRF is obtained down to $\sim10\ M_\odot\ \mathrm{yr}^{-1}$ and it shows a significant excess to that estimated fro...