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Session 76 - Star Formation in Galaxies.
Display session, Friday, January 09
Exhibit Hall,
In a deep (m_U < 21.1), optical multicolor survey of field galaxies, Liu et al. (1997) identified a significant excess population of starbursting galaxies in the redshift range 0.3 < z < 0.5 which are not observed at lower redshifts. We have obtained spectrophotometry of these galaxies from 3200--6400ÅThe spectra confirm that they are indeed strong starbursts, with mean [OII] equivalent widths of \sim40ÅWe have also obtained infrared JHK photometry of these objects; we present the results of stellar population modeling using data from the rest frame near-UV to the infrared, to determine if they are starbursts occurring in existing galaxies with old stellar populations or (2) young dwarf galaxies undergoing their initial burst of star formation. We discuss the implications of this population of starbursts in the overall context of field galaxy evolution: are they primary contributors to the evolution of the field galaxy luminosity function?
