On the bright-end of the UV luminosity functions of galaxies at $z \sim 0.6-1.2$

M. Sharma, M. J. Page, I. Ferreras, A. A. Breeveld

Published 2022-12-01Version 1

We derive the Ultra-Violet (UV) luminosity function (LF) of star forming galaxies falling in the redshift range $z = 0.6 - 1.2$, in the rest-frame far-UV (1500 {\AA}) wavelength. For this work we are in particular interested in the bright end of the UV LF in this redshift range. The data from \textit{XMM-Newton} Optical Monitor (XMM-OM), near-ultraviolet (1600-4000 {\AA}) observations over 1.5 deg\textsuperscript{2} of the COSMOS field are employed for this purpose. We compile a source-list of 879 sources with $UVW1_\mathrm{AB}$ extending to $\sim 21$ mag from the wide area UVW1 image of the COSMOS field. in the two bins $0.6 \leq z \leq 0.8$ and $0.8 \leq z \leq 1.2$. We use the maximum likelihood to fit the Schechter function to the un-binned data to estimate the parameters (faint-end slope, characteristic magnitude and normalisation) of the Schechter function. We find that the shape of the LF is consistent with the Schechter model and the parameters are in fair agreement with other studies conducted using direct measurements of the 1500 {\AA} flux. We see a brightening of the characteristic magnitude as we move from lower (0.7) to higher (1.0) redshift. The measures for luminosity density are within the error margins of past studies. We examine the brightest sources in our sample for AGN contribution. These sources are characterised through their spectral energy distributions (SEDs), integrated infrared luminosities and morphologies. We also explore their overlap with the brightest IR galaxies at similar redshift range.