The Evolution of the Optical and Near‐Infrared Galaxy Luminosity Functions and Luminosity Densities toz ∼ 2

Using Hubble Space Telescope and ground-based U through K- band photometryfrom the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS), we measure theevolution of the luminosity function and luminosity density in the rest-frameoptical (UBR) to z ~ 2, bridging the poorly explored ``redshift desert''between z~1 and z~2. We also use deep near-infrared observations to measure theevolution in the rest-frame J-band to z~1. Compared to local measurements fromthe SDSS, we find a brightening of the characteristic magnitude, (M*), by ~2.1,\~0.8 and ~0.7 mag between z=0.1 and z=1.9, in U, B, and R bands, respectively.The evolution of M* in the J-band is in the opposite sense, showing a dimmingbetween redshifts z=0.4 and z=0.9. This is consistent with a scenario in whichthe mean star formation rate in galaxies was higher in the past, while the meanstellar mass was lower, in qualitative agreement with hierarchical galaxyformation models. We find that the shape of the luminosity function is stronglydependent on spectral type and that there is strong evolution with redshift inthe relative contribution from the different spectral types to the luminositydensity. We find good agreement in the luminosity function derived from an R-selectedand a K-selected sample at z~1, suggesting that optically selected surveys ofsimilar depth (R < 24) are not missing a significant fraction of objects atthis redshift relative to a near-infrared-selected sample. We compare therest-frame B-band luminosity functions from z~0--2 with the predictions of asemi-analytic hierarchical model of galaxy formation, and find qualitativelygood agreement. In particular, the model predicts at least as many opticallyluminous galaxies at z~1--2 as are implied by our observations.Comment: 43 pages; 15 Figures; 5 Tables, Accepted for publication in Ap.