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Description
We construct a sample of low-redshift Ly{alpha} emission-line selected sources from Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) grism spectroscopy of nine deep fields to study the role of Ly{alpha} emission in galaxy populations with cosmic time. Our final sample consists of 119 (141) sources selected in the redshift interval z=0.195-0.44 (z=0.65-1.25) from the FUV (NUV) channel. We classify the Ly{alpha} sources as active galactic nuclei (AGNs) if high-ionization emission lines are present in their UV spectra and as possible star-forming galaxies otherwise. We classify additional sources as AGNs using line widths for our Ly{alpha} emitter (LAE) analysis. These classifications are broadly supported by comparisons with X-ray and optical spectroscopic observations, though the optical spectroscopy identifies a small number of additional AGNs. Defining the GALEX LAE sample in the same way as high-redshift LAE samples, we show that LAEs constitute only about 5% of NUV-continuum selected galaxies at z~0.3. We also show that they are less common at z~0.3 than they are at z~3. Finally, we confirm that the z~2 Lyman break galaxies have relatively low metallicities for their luminosities, and we find that they lie in the same metallicity range as the z~0.3 Ly{alpha} galaxies.
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