Luminosity function of [O II] emission-line galaxies in the MassiveBlack-II simulation

Abstract

We examine the luminosity function (LF) of [OII] emission-line galaxies in the high-resolution cosmological simulation MassiveBlack-II (MBII). From the spectral energy distribution of each galaxy, we select a sub-sample of star-forming galaxies at 0.06 ≤ z ≤ 3.0 using the [OII] emission line luminosity L([O II]). We confirm that the specific star formation rate matches that in the Galaxy And Mass Assembly survey. We show that the [OII] LF at z = 1.0 from the MBII shows good agreement with the LFs from several surveys below L([O II])=1043.0 erg s-1 while the low redshifts (z ≤ 0.3) show an excess in the prediction of bright [O II] galaxies, but still displaying a good match with observations below L([O II]) = 1041.6 erg s-1. Based on the validity in reproducing the properties of [OII] galaxies at low redshift (z ≤ 1), we forecast the evolution of the [O II] LF at high redshift (z ≤ 3), which can be tested by upcoming surveys such as the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment and Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument. The slopes of the LFs at bright and faint ends range from-3 to-2 showing minima at z = 2. The slope of the bright end evolves approximately as (z + 1)-1 at z ≤ 2 while the faint end evolves as ~3(z + 1)-1 at 0.6 ≤ z ≤ 2. In addition, a similar analysis is applied for the evolution of [OIII] LFs, which is to be explored in the forthcoming survey Wide-Field InfraRed Survey Telescope-Astrophysics Focused Telescope Assets. Finally, we show that the auto-correlation function of [OII] and [O III] emitting galaxies shows a rapid evolution from z = 2 to 1.