The WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey: Star-formation in UV-luminous galaxies from their luminosity functions

We present the ultraviolet (UV) luminosity function of galaxies from the GALEX Medium Imaging Survey with measured spectroscopic redshifts from the first data release of the WiggleZ Dark Energy Survey. This sample selects galaxies with high star formation rates: at 0.6 < z < 0.9 the median star formation rate is at the upper 95th percentile of optically-selected (r<22.5) galaxies and the sample contains about 50 per cent of all NUV < 22.8, 0.6 < z < 0.9 starburst galaxies within the volume sampled. The most luminous galaxies in our sample (-21.0>M_NUV>-22.5) evolve very rapidly with a number density declining as (1+z)^{5\pm 1} from redshift z = 0.9 to z = 0.6. These starburst galaxies (M_NUV<-21 is approximately a star formation rate of 30 \msuny) contribute about 1 per cent of cosmic star formation over the redshift range z=0.6 to z=0.9. The star formation rate density of these very luminous galaxies evolves rapidly, as (1+z)^{4\pm 1}. Such a rapid evolution implies the majority of star formation in these large galaxies must have occurred before z = 0.9. We measure the UV luminosity function in 0.05 redshift intervals spanning 0.1