2010ApJ...718.1235B

We use a complete sample of Lyα-emission-line-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) obtained from nine deep blank fields observed with the grism spectrographs on the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) satellite to measure the normalization and the spectral shape of the AGN contribution to the ionizing background (rest-frame wavelengths 700-900 Å) at z ∼ 1. Our sample consists of 139 sources selected in the redshift range z = 0.65-1.25 in the near-ultraviolet (NUV; 2371 Å central wavelength) channel. The area covered is 8.2 deg² to a NUV magnitude of 20.5 (AB) and 0.92 deg² at the faintest magnitude limit of 21.8. The GALEX AGN luminosity function agrees well with those obtained using optical and X-ray AGN samples, and the measured redshift evolution of the ionizing volume emissivity is similar to that previously obtained by measuring the GALEX far-ultraviolet (FUV; 1528 Å central wavelength) magnitudes of an X-ray-selected sample. For the first time, we are able to construct the shape of the ionizing background at z ∼ 1 in a fully self-consistent way.