The infrared emission of ultraviolet selected galaxies from z = 0 to z = 1

Aims. We want to study the IR (> 8 μm) emission of samples of galaxies selected in their rest-frame UV in a very homogeneous way (wavelength and luminosity) from z = 0 to z = 1: comparing their UV and IR rest-frame emissions will allow us to study the evolution of dust attenuation with z as well as to check if a UV selection is able to track all the star formation. This UV selection will also be compared to a sample of Lyman Break Galaxies selected at z ' 1. Methods. We select galaxies in UV (1500–1800 Å) rest-frame at z = 0, z = 0.6–0.8 and z = 0.8–1.2 together with a sample of Lyman Break Galaxies at z = 0.9–1.3, the samples are built in order to sample the same range of luminosity at any redshift. The UV rest-frame data come from GALEX for z < 1 and the U-band of the EIS survey (at z = 1). The UV data are combined to the IRAS 60 μm observations at z = 0 and the SPITZER data at 24 μm for z > 0 sources. The evolution of the IR and UV luminosities with z is analysed for individual galaxies as well as in terms of luminosity functions. Results. The LIR/LUV ratio is used to measure dust attenuation. This ratio does not exhibit a strong evolution with z for the bulk of our sample galaxies but some trends are found for galaxies with a strong dust attenuation and for UV luminous sources: galaxies with LIR/LUV > 10 are more frequent at z > 0 than at z = 0 and the largest values of LIR/LUV are found for UV faint objects; conversely the most luminous galaxies of our samples (LUV > 2 × 1010L ), detected at z = 1, exhibit a lower dust attenuation than the fainter ones. LIR/LUV increases with the K rest-frame luminosity of the galaxies at all the redshifts considered and shows a residual anti-correlation with LUV. The most massive and UV luminous galaxies exhibit quite large specific star formation rates. Lyman Break Galaxies exhibit systematically lower dust attenuation than UV selected galaxies of same luminosity but similar specific star formation rates. The analysis of the UV+IR luminosity functions leads to the conclusion that up to z = 1 most of the star formation activity of UV selected galaxies is emitted in IR. Whereas we are able to retrieve all the star formation from our UV selection at z = 0.7, at z = 1 we miss a large fraction of galaxies more luminous than ' 1011L . The effect is found larger for Lyman Break Galaxies.