Evidence for a gradual decline in the universal rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity density for z < 1

We have utilized various magnitude-limited samples drawn from an extremely deep and highly complete spectroscopic redshift survey of galaxies observed in seven colors in the Hawaii Survey Fields and the Hubble Deep Field to i nvestigate the evolution of the universal rest-frame ultraviolet luminosity density from z = 1 to the present. The multicolor data (U', B, V, R, and I , J, HK') enable the sample selection to be made in the rest-frame ultravio let for the entire redshift range. Because of the large sample size and dep th (U-AB = 24.75, B-AB = 24.75, I-AB = 23.5), we are able to accurately det ermine the luminosity density to z = 1. We do not confirm the very steep ev olution reported by Lilly et al. but instead find a shallower slope, approx imately (1 + z)(1.5) for qo, = 0.5, which would imply that galaxy formation is continuing smoothly to the present time rather than peaking at z = 1. M uch of the present formation is taking place in smaller galaxies. Detailed comparisons with other recent determinations of the evolution are presented .