The Wyoming Survey for H-alpha. III. H-alpha Luminosity Functions at z ~
  0.16, 0.24, 0.32, and 0.40
  The Wyoming Survey for H-alpha, or WySH, is a large-area, ground-based
imaging survey for H-alpha-emitting galaxies at redshifts of z ~ 0.16, 0.24,
0.32, and 0.40. The survey spans up to four square degrees in a set of fields
of low Galactic cirrus emission, using twin narrowband filters at each epoch
for improved stellar continuum subtraction. H-alpha luminosity functions are
presented for each Delta(z) ~ 0.02 epoch based on a total of nearly 1200
galaxies. These data clearly show an evolution with lookback time in the
volume-averaged cosmic star formation rate. Integrals of Schechter fits to the
incompleteness- and extinction-corrected H-alpha luminosity functions indicate
star formation rates per co-moving volume of 0.010, 0.013, 0.020, 0.022 h_70
M_sun yr^{-1} Mpc^{-3} at z ~ 0.16, 0.24, 0.32, and 0.40, respectively.
Statistical and systematic measurement uncertainties combined are on the order
of 25% while the effects of cosmic variance are at the 20% level. The bulk of
this evolution is driven by changes in the characteristic luminosity L_* of the
H-alpha luminosity functions, with L_* for the earlier two epochs being a
factor of two larger than L_* at the latter two epochs; it is more difficult
with this data set to decipher systematic evolutionary differences in the
luminosity function amplitude and faint-end slope. Coupling these results with
a comprehensive compilation of results from the literature on emission line
surveys, the evolution in the cosmic star formation rate density over 0 < z <
1.5 is measured to be rho_dot_SFR(z) = rho_dot_SFR(0) (1+z)^{3.4+/-0.4}.
