# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

The ultraviolet (UV) luminosity density was measured at redshifts $`z`$$`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}`$1 by Lilly et al. (1996)  using the Canada–France Redshift Survey (CFRS) and found to rise rapidly by a factor of $`15`$ from $`z=0`$ to $`z=1`$. Similar results were found in this redshift range by . Madau, Pozzetti, & Dickinson (1998)  measured the UV luminosity density at redshifts $`z2.75`$ and $`z4.00`$ using the $`U`$\- and $`B`$-band “dropout” technique applied to galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field (HDF) and found that it might be lower than the  measurements at $`z`$$`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}`$1 by a factor of $`2`$. This suggested that there might be a peak in the UV luminosity density at some redshift between $`z=1`$ and 2.

More recently, Connolly et al. (1997)  measured the UV luminosity density from the HDF in the previously unsurveyed redshift range 1$`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}`$$`z`$ $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}`$2 and found that it appears to peak at $`z1.5`$, which is consistent with the results of  and . However the photometric redshifts of galaxies in the HDF from Sawicki, Lin, and Yee (1997)  result in a UV luminosity density that continues to increase to $`z`$$`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}`$2.5, indicating that the peak at $`z1.5`$ may be questionable.

## 2 Photometric Redshifts

The starting point of our analysis is the photometric redshift estimates of  and . The details of the photometric redshift estimation technique have been and will be presented elsewhere ( & ). To briefly summarize, galaxy photometry is determined from the optical F300W, F450W, F606W, and F814W  and infrared $`J`$, $`H`$, and $`K`$  images of the HDF. Galaxy redshifts are then determined from fits to the spectral templates of E/S0, Sbc, Scd, and Irr galaxies, including the effects of intrinsic and intervening neutral hydrogen absorption. The result of the most recent application of this method is presented in the catalog of , which lists photometric redshift estimates of 1067 galaxies to a limiting magnitude threshold of $`AB(814)=28.0`$ over an angular area of $``$4 arcmin<sup>2</sup>. Comparison between the spectroscopic and photometric redshifts, as shown in Figure 1, indicates that the agreement is excellent at $`z<2`$ ($`\sigma =0.09`$) and remains quite good all the way out to $`z`$$`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}`$5 ($`\sigma 0.45`$).

## 3 Ultraviolet Luminosity Density

We determined the luminosity (per unit wavelength interval) of each galaxy at a rest-frame wavelength $``$1500Å by applying an empirical $`K`$-correction derived from the best-fit spectral template to the measured galaxy photometry. From this, we determined the comoving luminosity density versus redshift. The key point of our measurement is that we determined the uncertainty of the comoving luminosity density versus redshift by applying a bootstrap resampling technique. For each iteration of the bootstrap technique, we resampled the photometric catalog and redetermined the photometric redshift of each resampled galaxy, perturbing the photometry by random deviates according to the measured photometric error and perturbing the redshift by a random deviate according to the RMS residuals described in §2. We then determined the comoving luminosity density versus redshift using the resampled, perturbed redshift catalog. We repeated the procedure 1000 times in order to determine the range of values compatible with the observations. This procedure explicitly allows for sampling error, photometric error, and cosmic variance with respect to the spectral templates. 

The results are shown in the top left panel of Figure 2, which plots the comoving UV luminosity density versus redshift. For comparison, the data points from , , and  are also plotted. Note that our data are entirely consistent with the previous measurements to well within $`1.5\sigma `$ (and all but our first data point are within $`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_<}{^{}}`$1$`\sigma `$ of previous data).

With sampling errors properly accounted for, the errorbars generated from our bootstrap code are more than a factor of two larger than those of  or  for the $`z>2`$ UV luminosity density. It can be seen that, after an increase at redshifts $`z02`$, the UV luminosity density remains constant to within errors to redshifts $`z6`$. In other words, we find no convincing evidence that the UV luminosity density decreases with redshift for $`z>2`$.

## 4 Effects of Cosmological $`(1+z)^3`$ Surface Brightness Dimming

To meaningfully compare the comoving UV luminosity density of the local, low-redshift Universe with that of the distant, high-redshift Universe, it is necessary to account for the enormous effect of cosmological $`(1+z)^3`$ surface brightness (SB) dimming. At $`z<0.1`$ this effect is less than a factor of 1.3, but at $`z=5`$ it becomes a factor of 216. Because low-redshift galaxies are viewed to much lower intrinsic SB thresholds than are high-redshift galaxies, certain corrections must be applied in order to view all galaxies at a common intrinsic SB threshold.

We applied these corrections to our catalog of 1067 galaxies. First, we applied monochromatic SB corrections and $`K`$-corrections on a pixel-by-pixel basis, as in , to correct the flux of each galaxy in our catalog to the value that would be observed if the galaxy were placed at redshift $`z=5`$. We also applied small corrections to account for the different WFPC2 passbands that sample rest-frame 1500 Å at different redshifts.

Next, we applied a uniform SB cut on a pixel-by-pixel basis, excluding pixels that failed to meet a minimum SB threshold. The threshold was determined by assuming that objects are detected in the F814W image to within $`1\sigma `$ of sky. Lastly, we reversed the monochromatic SB corrections and $`K`$-corrections on a pixel-by-pixel basis to bring each galaxy back to its original redshift and again calculated the comoving luminosity density versus redshift.

The results are shown in the bottom panel left of Figure 2, which plots the comoving UV luminosity density versus redshift of high intrinsic surface brightness regions. It is evident that (1) the comoving UV luminosity density of high intrinsic surface brightness regions increases by two orders of magnitude from $`z0`$ to $`z5`$, and (2) star-forming objects seen at $`z>2.5`$ are relatively rare at $`z<2.5`$. Indeed, the righthand panel of Figure 2 also illustrates this point, in that it shows how the average SB of galaxies in the HDF increases with redshift. 

It is also interesting to note that in the lowest redshift bin ($`z=0.00.5`$) of the lefthand panel of Figure 2 (both top and bottom), where the SB dimming effect is smallest, the intrinsically high SB regions make up only 0.5% of the total UV luminosity density. If this ratio is the same at high redshifts as it is at low redshifts then our measurements of the UV luminosity density at high redshifts in Figure 1a may need to be increased by up to a factor of 150. Although this ratio may be quite different at high redshifts than it is at low redshifts, this suggests that the UV luminosity density could be a strongly increasing function of redshift.

We find that objects with star formation rates comparable to those at $`z`$$`\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{_>}{^{}}`$3 are very rare in the nearby Universe. This implies that a majority of the star formation may have occurred at very high redshifts, and therefore that a peak in the star formation rate density of the Universe has not yet been observed and may lie somewhere at $`z>5`$.

Acknowledgements.  SMP and KML acknowledge support from NASA grant NAGW-4422 and NSF grant AST-9624216. AF acknowledges support from a grant from the Australian Research Council.