On the Co-Evolution of the AGN and Star-Forming Galaxy Ultraviolet Luminosity Functions at 3 < z < 9

Understand

Studies of the high-redshift rest-frame ultraviolet (UV) luminosity functions (LFs) have typically treated the star-forming galaxy and active galactic nuclei (AGN) populations separately, as they have different survey depth and area requirements.

• However, the recent advent of wide-area deep ground-based imaging surveys now probe volumes large enough to discover AGNs, at depths sensitive enough for fainter star-forming galaxies, bridging these two populations.
• Using results from such surveys as observational constraints, we present a methodology to jointly empirically model the evolution of the rest-UV luminosity functions at z=3-9.
• We assume both populations have a LF well-described by a double power law modified to allow a flattening at the faint-end, and that all LF parameters evolve smoothly with redshift.