Boötes-HiZELS: an optical to near-infrared survey of emission-line galaxies at $\bf z=0.4-4.7$

Abstract

We present a sample of $\sim 1000$ emission line galaxies at $z=0.4-4.7$ from the $\sim0.7$deg$^2$ High-$z$ Emission Line Survey (HiZELS) in the Boötes field identified with a suite of six narrow-band filters at $\approx 0.4-2.1$ $μ$m. These galaxies have been selected on their Ly$α$ (73), {\sc [Oii]} (285), H$β$/{\sc [Oiii]} (387) or H$α$ (362) emission-line, and have been classified with optical to near-infrared colours. A subsample of 98 sources have reliable redshifts from multiple narrow-band (e.g. [O{\sc ii}]-H$α$) detections and/or spectroscopy. In this survey paper, we present the observations, selection and catalogs of emitters. We measure number densities of Ly$α$, [O{\sc ii}], H$β$/{\sc [Oiii]} and H$α$ and confirm strong luminosity evolution in star-forming galaxies from $z\sim0.4$ to $\sim 5$, in agreement with previous results. To demonstrate the usefulness of dual-line emitters, we use the sample of dual [O{\sc ii}]-H$α$ emitters to measure the observed [O{\sc ii}]/H$α$ ratio at $z=1.47$. The observed [O{\sc ii}]/H$α$ ratio increases significantly from 0.40$\pm0.01$ at $z=0.1$ to 0.52$\pm0.05$ at $z=1.47$, which we attribute to either decreasing dust attenuation with redshift, or due to a bias in the (typically) fiber-measurements in the local Universe which only measure the central kpc regions. At the bright end, we find that both the H$α$ and Ly$α$ number densities at $z\approx2.2$ deviate significantly from a Schechter form, following a power-law. We show that this is driven entirely by an increasing X-ray/AGN fraction with line-luminosity, which reaches $\approx 100$ \% at line-luminosities $L\gtrsim3\times10^{44}$ erg s$^{-1}$.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Main text 16 pages, 7 Figures. Catalogues of line-emitters available