Spitzer Space Telescope - Archive Research Proposal #20379


The Evolution of the 24 Micron Luminosity Function from Large
Wide-field Spectroscopic Samples of Spitzer Galaxies

Principal Investigator: Daniel Eisenstein
           Institution: University of Arizona

Co-Investigators: 
Casey Papovich, University of Arizona                                 

Science Category: nearby galaxies (z<0.05, v_sys<15,000 km/s) 
Dollars Approved: 74722.0 

Abstract:
We propose for archival funding to use existing deep, wide-area
Spitzer imaging to study the evolution in the low-redshift 24 micron
luminosity function.  Our group has obtained the world's largest
sample of wide-field spectroscopy in Spitzer fields through an
ambitious survey with the Hectospec multi-fiber spectrograph on the
MMT.  We have measured 1200  redshifts for 24 micron-selected galaxies
in the 4 sq.  degree Spitzer First-Look Survey (FLS) field and 9000
galaxies in the 9 sq.  degree NOAO deep-wide Bootes field (including
1000  24 micron-selected sources).  The focus of this proposal is to
study the local IR luminosity function and its evolution to moderate
redshifts using this large spectroscopic data set combined with
roughly 2000  SDSS spectra in fields of the SWIRE Legacy survey.  We
will also use the spectroscopic dataset to study the 24 micron
emission as a function of the optical rest-frame color and optical
luminosity.  As a data product from this proposal, we will provide the
full spectroscopic catalog of redshifts for Spitzer-selected sources
in the FLS field through the SSC (as well as electronic versions of
peer-review journals) in time to support the Spitzer CP-3, greatly
increasing the archival value of the Spitzer data before the end of
the Spitzer mission.