Assigned ID: 661 ----- Attempting Submission 1 (Fri Mar 07 22:20:48 GMT 2008) ----- Phase I Proposal 661 (marchesini.apt) successfully submitted. ----- Attempting Submission 2 (Fri Mar 07 23:59:58 GMT 2008) ----- Phase I Proposal 661 (marchesini.apt) successfully submitted. ----- Attempting Submission 3 (Sat Mar 08 00:53:15 GMT 2008) ----- One of the major goals of observational cosmology is to understand the physical processes responsible for shaping the galaxies into their present forms. The luminosity function (LF) is one of the most fundamental of all cosmological observables, and it is one of most basic descriptors of a galaxy population. As the redshift range z~2-3 represents a key epoch in the buildup and evolution of galaxies, probes of the LF at these redshifts provide important constraints on the processes at work in galaxy formation and evolution. While currently there are strong constraints on the bright end of the LF in this epoch, the faint end is less well-known, suffering from small number statistics and field-to-field variations, especially for red galaxies. Moreover, the uncertainties on the faint-end slope propagate in the estimates of the number and luminosity densities. In particular, the relative contributions of red and blue galaxies to the global densities are very sensitive to the adopted faint-end slopes. We here propose to use HST archival data to constrain the faint end of the rest-frame optical LFs at 2<z<3 by exploiting the ultra-deep optical and near-IR data available in the two GOODS fields over a total surveyed area of ~73 square arcmin. We expect to increase the number of galaxies with 0.08L*<L<0.4L* by a factor of ~5. Moreover, we will push the determination of the LFs about 2-3 mag deeper, allowing us to probe the rest-frame optical LFs down to ~0.01 L* at z~3. This analysis will ultimately result in the most accurate rest-frame optical LFs of galaxies at z~2-3.

COSMOLOGY 12 58000.00 false 0.0 0.0 false false false false false SUPPORTED