Galaxies 09: Assembly, Gas Content and Star Formation History of Galaxies
Daniel Dale
University of Wyoming
The Wyoming Survey for H$\alpha$
The {\it Wyoming Survey for H$\alpha$} is a large-area, ground-based, narrowband imaging survey for distant H$\alpha$-emitting galaxies. The survey spans several square degrees in a set of fields of low Galactic cirrus emission and covers multiple cosmic epochs. Probing down to luminosities far below the knee of the luminosity function at each epoch will allow a robust determination of the evolution in the H$\alpha$ luminosity function and thus the cosmic star formation rate density. Initial results are presented here for several hundred galaxies observed out to a redshift of $z\sim0.4$, and ongoing collaborative efforts in the near-infrared are extending this survey out to $z\sim2.2$. There is a mild but clear evolution with lookback time in the volume-averaged cosmic star formation rate.
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