[CMR2006] 0149+336 S14 , the SIMBAD biblio

The Bright Ages Survey is a K-band-selected redshift survey over six separate fields with UBVRIzJHK imaging covering a total of 75.6 arcmin² and reaching K=20-20.5. Two fields have deep HST imaging, while all are centered on possible overdensities in the z∼2 range. Here we report photometric redshifts and spectroscopy for this sample, which has been described in Paper I. We find 18 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts of z>1.5. The derived rest-frame R-band luminosity functions show strong evolution out to z=2. The luminosity function at z=2 shows more bright galaxies than at any other epoch, even the extrapolated z=3 luminosity function from Shapley et al. However, the R-band integrated luminosity density remains roughly constant from to z=0.5 to z=2. Evolved galaxies (E, S0, Sa) show a decreasing contribution to the total R-band luminosity density with redshift. The dust extinction in our K-selected sample is moderately larger [median z=2 E(B-V)=0.30] than that found in Lyman break galaxies, although not enough to make a significant impact on the total light or star formation found at high redshift. We measure the extinction-corrected star formation rate density at z=2, finding ρ_SFR(z=1.5-2.5)=0.093 M_☉/yr/Mpc3, consistent with a relatively flat instantaneous star formation rate from z=1-4.