Herschel PEP/HerMES: the redshift evolution (0 ≤ z ≤ 4) of dust attenuation and of the total (UV+IR) star formation rate density^⋆

¹ Aix–Marseille Université, CNRS, LAM (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de Marseille) UMR 7326, 13388 Marseille, France
e-mail: denis.burgarella@oamp.fr
² INAF–Osservatorio Astronomico di Bologna, via Ranzani 1, 40127 Bologna, Italy
³ Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik (MPE), Postfach 1312, 85741 Garching, Germany
⁴ Laboratoire AIM-Paris-Saclay, CEA/DSM/Irfu – CNRS – Université Paris Diderot, CE-Saclay, pt courrier 131, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
⁵ California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
⁶ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
⁷ Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
⁸ Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Royal Observatory, Blackford Hill, Edinburgh EH9 3HJ, UK
⁹ Astronomy Centre, Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QH, UK
¹⁰ Department of Physics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
¹¹ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Padova, vicolo Osservatorio, 3, 35122 Padova, Italy
¹² Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey RH5 6NT, UK
¹³ INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma, via di Frascati 33, 00040 Monte Porzio Catone, Italy
¹⁴ Astrophysics Group, Physics Department, University of the Western Cape, Private Bag X17, 7535 Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa

Received: 5 April 2013
Accepted: 29 April 2013

Abstract

Using new homogeneous luminosity functions (LFs) in the far-ultraviolet (FUV) from VVDS and in the far-infrared (FIR) from Herschel/PEP and Herschel/HerMES, we studied the evolution of the dust attenuation with redshift. With this information, we were able to estimate the redshift evolution of the total (FUV + FIR) star formation rate density (SFRD_TOT). By integrating SFRD_TOT, we followed the mass building and analyzed the redshift evolution of the stellar mass density (SMD). This article aims at providing a complete view of star formation from the local Universe to z ~ 4 and, using assumptions on earlier star formation history, compares this evolution with previously published data in an attempt to draw a homogeneous picture of the global evolution of star formation in galaxies. Our main conclusions are that: 1) the dust attenuation A_FUV is found to increase from z = 0 to z ~ 1.2 and then starts to decrease until our last data point at z = 3.6; 2) the estimated SFRD confirms published results to z ~ 2. At z > 2, we observe either a plateau or a small increase up to z ~ 3 and then a likely decrease up to z = 3.6; 3) the peak of A_FUV is delayed with respect to the plateau of SFRD_TOT and a probable origin might be found in the evolution of the bright ends of the FUV and FIR LFs; 4) using assumptions (exponential rise and linear rise with time) for the evolution of the star formation density from z = 3.6 to z_form = 10, we integrated SFRD_TOT and obtained a good agreement with the published SMDs.