The AstroSat UV Deep Field South. III. Evolution of the UV Luminosity Function and Luminosity Density from z ~ 0.8–0.4

We characterize the rest-frame 1500 Å UV luminosity function (UVLF) from deep AstroSat/UV Imaging Telescope (UVIT) F154W and N242W imaging in the Great Observatories Origins Survey South (GOODS-S) deep field. The UVLFs are constructed and subsequently characterized with fitted Schechter function parameters from Far-UV (FUV) observations at z < 0.13 and Near-UV (NUV) observations in seven redshift bins in z ∼ 0.8–0.4. The UVLF slope (α) and characteristic magnitude (M∗) are consistent with previous determinations for this redshift range based on AstroSat/UVIT GOODS-North observations, as well as with those from Galaxy evolution Explorer and Hubble Space Telescope observations. However, differences in the normalization factor (φ _∗) are present for UVLFs for some redshift bins. We compute the UV luminosity density, ρUV, combining our determined UVLF parameters with literature determinations out to z ∼ 10. The ρUV trend with redshift implies the rapid increase in cosmic star formation till its peak at z ∼ 3 (cosmic noon) followed by a slow decline till present day. Both the initial increase in cosmic star formation and subsequent decline are found to be more rapid than previous determinations.