TheGALEX-VVDS Measurement of the Evolution of the Far-Ultraviolet Luminosity Density and the Cosmic Star Formation Rate

Abstract a companion Letter (Arnouts et al.) we present new measurements of the galaxy luminosity function at 1500 Å out to z~1 using Galaxy Evolution Explorer VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey observations (1039 galaxies with NUV<=24.5 and z>0.2) and at higher z using existing data sets. In this Letter we use the same sample to study evolution of the FUV luminosity density rho1500. We detect evolution consistent with a (1+z)2.5+/-0.7 rise to z~1 and (1+z)0.5+/-0.4 for z>1. The luminosity density from the most UV-luminous galaxies (UVLGs) is undergoing dramatic evolution (30 times) between 0<z<1. UVLGs are responsible for a significant fraction (>25%) of the total far-ultraviolet luminosity density at z~1. We measure dust attenuation and star formation rates of our sample galaxies and determine the star formation rate density (rho*) as a function of redshift, both uncorrected and corrected for dust. We find good agreement with other measures of rho* in the rest ultraviolet and Halpha given the still significant uncertainties in the attenuation correction.