A large, deep 3 deg2 survey of H α, [O iii], and [O ii] emitters from LAGER: constraining luminosity functions

We present our measurements of the H α, [O iii], and [O ii] luminosity functions as part of the Lyman Alpha Galaxies at Epoch of Reionization (LAGER) survey using our samples of 1577 z = 0.47 H α-, 3933 z = 0.93 [O iii]-, and 5367 z = 1.59 [O ii]-selected emission line galaxies in a 3 deg
²
single, CTIO/Blanco DECam pointing of the COSMOS field. Our observations reach 5σ depths of 8.2 × 10
⁻¹⁸
erg s
⁻¹
cm
⁻²
and comoving volumes of (1−7) × 10
⁵
Mpc
³
making our survey one of the deepest narrow-band surveys. We select our emission line galaxies via spectroscopic confirmation, photometric redshifts, and colour–colour selections. We measure the observed luminosity functions for each sample and find best fits of
$\phi ^\star = 10^{-3.16^{+0.09}_{-0.09}}$
Mpc
⁻³
and
$L^\star = 10^{41.72^{+0.09}_{-0.09}}$
erg s
⁻¹
for H α,
$\phi ^\star = 10^{-2.16^{+0.10}_{-0.12}}$
Mpc
⁻³
and
$L^\star = 10^{41.38^{+0.07}_{-0.06}}$
erg s
⁻¹
for [O iii], and
$\phi ^\star = 10^{-1.97^{+0.07}_{-0.07}}$
Mpc
⁻³
and
$L^\star = 10^{41.66^{+0.03}_{-0.03}}$
erg s
⁻¹
for [O ii], with α fixed to −1.75, −1.6, and −1.3, respectively. An excess of bright >10
⁴²
erg s
⁻¹
[O iii] emitters is observed and may be due to active galactic nucleus (AGN) contamination. Corrections for dust attenuation are applied assuming A
Hα
= 1 mag. We also design our own empirical rest-frame g − r calibration using SDSS DR12 data, test it against our z = 0.47 H α emitters with zCOSMOS 1D spectra, and calibrate it for (g − r) between −0.8 and 1.3 mag. Dust and AGN-corrected star formation rate densities (SFRDs) are measured as log
10
ρ
SFR
/(M
⊙
 yr
⁻¹
 Mpc
⁻³
) = −1.63 ± 0.04, −1.07 ± 0.06, and −0.90 ± 0.10 for H α, [O iii], and [O ii], respectively. We find our [O iii] and [O ii] samples fully trace cosmic star formation activity at their respective redshifts in comparison to multiwavelength SFRDs, while the H α sample traces ∼70 per cent of the total z = 0.47 SFRD.